How Campaign Ads Stimulate Political Interest

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Canen, Nathan; Martin, Gregory J. J.
• 署名单位: University of Houston System; University of Houston; Stanford University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01062
• 发表日期: 2023-03
• 页码: 292-310
• 关键词: media bias; cheap talk; identification; persuasion

摘要

We empirically investigate key dynamic features of advertising competition in elections using a new data set of very high-frequency, household-level television viewing matched to campaign advertising exposures. First, we show that exposure to campaign advertising increases households' consumption of news programming by 3 or 4 minutes on average over the next 24 hours. The identification compares households viewing a program when a political ad appeared to viewers in the same market who barely missed it. Second, we show that these effects decline over the campaign. Together, these dynamic forces help rationalize why candidates deploy much of their advertising budgets well before election day.