Competition and Ideological Diversity: Historical Evidence from Us Newspapers
47 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2012 Last revised: 29 Apr 2023
There are 2 versions of this paper
Competition and Ideological Diversity: Historical Evidence from US Newspapers
Date Written: July 2012
Abstract
We study the competitive forces that shaped ideological diversity in the US press in the early twentieth century. We find that households preferred like-minded news and that newspapers used their political orientation to differentiate from competitors. We formulate a model of newspaper demand, entry, and political affiliation choice in which newspapers compete for both readers and advertisers. We use a combination of estimation and calibration to identify the model's parameters from novel data on newspaper circulation, costs, and revenues. The estimated model implies that competition enhances ideological diversity, that the market undersupplies diversity, and that optimal competition policy requires accounting for the two-sidedness of the news market.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Simeon Djankov, Caralee Mcliesh, ...
-
By Simeon Djankov, Caralee Mcliesh, ...
-
The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India
By Timothy J. Besley and Robin Burgess
-
Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability
By Timothy J. Besley and Andrea Prat
-
Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability
By Timothy J. Besley and Andrea Prat
-
By Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro
-
By Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro