Mind What Your Voters Read: Media Exposure and International Economic Policy Making
52 Pages Posted: 16 May 2016
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: Suggested Citation