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Compulsory Voting and TV News Consumption

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  • Raphael Bruce
  • Rafael Costa Lima

Abstract

Do people acquire more information when they are encouraged to participate in elections? This paper presents empirical evidence on the effects of compulsory voting laws over the consumption of TV news. In Brazil, the law determines that literate citizens over the age of eighteen are subject to a number of penalties if they don't attend the ballots. This allows us to identify the causal effect of being under a compulsory voting regime on information acquisition. We find that compulsory voting has a significant and substantial positive impact on the probability of an individual to watch Brazil's main TV newscast. Additionally, the effect is stronger for poor voters and for individuals who have neutral evaluations of the incumbent president. Our results are restricted to young voters who just turned eighteen and are robust to different polynomials and bandwidth lengths.

Suggested Citation

  • Raphael Bruce & Rafael Costa Lima, 2015. "Compulsory Voting and TV News Consumption," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_48, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), revised 12 Jun 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2015wpecon48
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Capozza & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2021. "Studying Information Acquisition in the Field: A Practical Guide and Review," CEBI working paper series 21-15, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    2. Yang, Feng-An & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2023. "Impact of a pension program on healthcare utilization among older farmers: Empirical evidence from health claims data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Hung‐Hao Chang & Chad D. Meyerhoefer, 2023. "Do elections make you sick? Evidence from first‐time voters," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1064-1083, May.
    4. Francesco Capozza & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2022. "Recent Advances in Studies of News Consumption," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 204, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    5. Jonas Jessen & Daniel Kuehnle & Markus Wagner, 2021. "Is Voting Really Habit-Forming and Transformative? Long-Run Effects of Earlier Eligibility on Turnout and Political Involvement from the UK," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1973, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Compulsory voting; Information; Media; Brazil.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

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