The Price of Media Capture and the Debasement of the French Newspaper Industry During the Interwar

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: European Central Bank; Bank of France; European Central Bank; Bank of France; Universite Paris Nanterre
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050714000606
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 799-830
• 关键词: voting right; MARKET; press; BIAS

摘要

Measurement of the value of media capture (the control of newspapers by business or political interests) is difficult. However, if capture is valuable, it should affect the price of newspaper shares. Useful information about the value of media capture should be retrievable from Stock Exchange data. Interwar France provides a unique setting to implement this idea because key newspapers floated voting and nonvoting stocks. Combined with takeover prices, data yield estimates of the price of media capture and of the time-series evolution of this price. Comparison with Britain sheds new light on a dark episode of French history.