American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics
ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)
"Personal Influence": Social Context and Political Competition
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
vol. 3,
no. 1, February 2011
(pp. 307–27)
Abstract
This paper studies the effect of social learning on political outcomes in a model of informative campaign advertising. Voters' communication network affects parties' incentives to disclose political information, voters' learning about candidates running for office, and polarization of the electoral outcome. In richer communication networks, parties disclose less political information and voters are more likely to possess erroneous beliefs about the characteristics of the candidates. In turn, a richer communication network among voters may lead to political polarization. These results are reinforced when interpersonal communication occurs more frequently among ideologically homogeneous individuals and parties can target political advertising.(JEL D72, D85, M37, Z13)Citation
Galeotti, Andrea, and Andrea Mattozzi. 2011. ""Personal Influence": Social Context and Political Competition." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 3 (1): 307–27. DOI: 10.1257/mic.3.1.307Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D85 Network Formation and Analysis: Theory
- M37 Advertising
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification
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