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Love thy Neighbour, Love thy Kin: Strategy and Bias in the Eurovision Song Contest

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  • Stengos, Thanasis
  • Clerides, Sofronis

Abstract

The annual Eurovision Song Contest provides a setting where Europeans can express their sentiments about other countries without regard to political sensitivities. Analyzing voting data from the 25 contests between 1981-2005, we find strong evidence for the existence of clusters of countries that systematically exchange votes regardless of the quality of their entries. Cultural, geographic, economic and political factors are important determinants of point exchanges. Factors such as order of appearance, language and gender are also important. There is also a substantial host country effect. We find some evidence of reciprocity but no evidence of strategic voting.

Suggested Citation

  • Stengos, Thanasis & Clerides, Sofronis, 2006. "Love thy Neighbour, Love thy Kin: Strategy and Bias in the Eurovision Song Contest," CEPR Discussion Papers 5732, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5732
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    2. L. Bottazzi & M. Da Rin & T. Hellmann, 2007. "The Importance of Trust for Investment: Evidence from Venture Capital," Working Papers 612, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Felbermayr, Gabriel J. & Toubal, Farid, 2010. "Cultural proximity and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 279-293, February.
    4. Pannicke, Julia, 2015. "Abstimmungsverhalten im Bundesvision Song Contest: Regionale Nähe versus Qualität der Musik," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 95, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    5. Oliver Budzinski & Julia Pannicke, 2017. "Culturally biased voting in the Eurovision Song Contest: Do national contests differ?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 343-378, November.
    6. Ari Kokko & Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall, 2014. "Distance, Transaction Costs, and Preferences in European Trade," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 87-120, June.
    7. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    8. Page, Lionel & Page, Katie, 2010. "Last shall be first: A field study of biases in sequential performance evaluation on the Idol series," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 186-198, February.
    9. Alexander V. Mantzaris & Samuel R. Rein & Alexander D. Hopkins, 2018. "Preference and neglect amongst countries in the Eurovision Song Contest," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 377-390, September.
    10. Budzinski, Oliver & Pannicke, Julia, 2017. "Does popularity matter in a TV song competition? Evidence from a national music contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 106, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    11. Budzinski, Oliver & Pannicke, Julia, 2016. "Do preferences for pop music converge across countries? Empirical evidence from the Eurovision Song Contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 101, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    12. Kokko, Ari & Gustavsson Tingvall, Patrik, 2012. "The Eurovision Song Contest, Preferences and European Trade," Ratio Working Papers 183, The Ratio Institute.
    13. Budzinski, Oliver & Gänßle, Sophia & Weimar, Daniel, 2023. "Disentangling individual biases in jury voting: An empirical analysis of voting behavior in the Eurovision Song Contest," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 171, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Eurovision; Social Networks; Reciprocity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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