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Can Partisan News Shift Political Preference and Voting Behavior? An Experimental Evidence from Taiwan's General Elections 2016

Author

Listed:
  • Chun-Fang Chiang

    (National Taiwan Univ)

  • Semin Kim

    (Yonsei Univ)

  • SunTak Kim

    (National Taiwan Univ)

  • Chien-Hsun Lin

    (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara)

  • Ming-Jen Lin

    (National Taiwan Univ)

Abstract

We conduct a field experiment to investigate the elects of partisan news on the 2016 Taiwan Presidential and Legislative Elections. Sub- jects are divided into four groups: rightist (KMT), leftist (DPP), new third-party and control, and provided with distinct partisan news ar- ticles. To ensure readership of assigned newspapers, subjects join multiple experimental sessions in which they are asked to solve quiz questions about the news articles and rewarded according to their quiz scores. We measure the elects of partisan news by comparing the reported vote choices in the 2016 Elections with subjects' initial political preferences. We find that the leftist news articles have signif- icantly increased the support for the DPP candidate Tsai by reinforc- ing the existing preferences. The articles about the third-parties have changed subjects' voting intentions to support the new party GSD. We also find that the estimated baseline and reinforcement treatment elects are driven by undecided subjects or swing voters.

Suggested Citation

  • Chun-Fang Chiang & Semin Kim & SunTak Kim & Chien-Hsun Lin & Ming-Jen Lin, 2019. "Can Partisan News Shift Political Preference and Voting Behavior? An Experimental Evidence from Taiwan's General Elections 2016," Working papers 2019rwp-147, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:yon:wpaper:2019rwp-147
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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