Mind What Your Voters Read: Media Exposure and International Economic Policy Making

52 Pages Posted: 16 May 2016

See all articles by Giovanni Facchini

Giovanni Facchini

University of Nottingham

Tommaso Frattini

University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA); University of Milan - Department of Economics, Business and Statistics

Cora Signorotto

University of Milan

Date Written: May 2016

Abstract

We investigate how media exposure affects elected representatives' response to preference on immigration and trade policy. Using a novel dataset spanning the period 1986-2004, in which we match individual opinion surveys with congressmen roll call votes, we find that greater exposure to media coverage tends to increase a politician's accountability when it comes to migration policy making, while we find no effect for trade policy. Our results thus suggest that more information on the behavior of elected officials affects decisions only when the policy issue is perceived to be salient by the electorate.

Keywords: Media exposure, political economy, Public Opinion, Roll Call Votes

JEL Classification: F22, H89

Suggested Citation

Facchini, Giovanni and Frattini, Tommaso and Signorotto, Cora, Mind What Your Voters Read: Media Exposure and International Economic Policy Making (May 2016). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP11282, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2780390

Giovanni Facchini (Contact Author)

University of Nottingham ( email )

University Park
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
United Kingdom

Tommaso Frattini

University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA) ( email )

Via P. Amedeo 34
Milano, Mi 20122
Italy

University of Milan - Department of Economics, Business and Statistics ( email )

Via Festa del Perdono, 7
Milan, 20122
Italy

Cora Signorotto

University of Milan ( email )

Via Festa del Perdono, 7
Milan, 20122
Italy

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
0
Abstract Views
454
PlumX Metrics