The Judge, the Politician, and the Press: Newspaper Coverage and Criminal Sentencing across Electoral Systems

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lim, Claire S. H.; Snyder, James M., Jr.; Stromberg, David
• 署名单位: Cornell University; Harvard University; Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20140111
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 103-135
• 关键词: voting-behavior; COURTS; ACCOUNTABILITY; media; party; preferences; television; ECONOMY

摘要

We study how media environments interact with political institutions that structure the accountability of public officials. Specifically, we quantify media influence on the behavior of US state court judges. We analyze around 1.5 million criminal sentencing decisions from 1986 to 2006 and new data on the newspaper coverage of 9,828 trial court judges. Since newspaper coverage is endogenous, we use the match between newspaper markets and judicial districts to identify effects. We find that newspaper coverage significantly increases sentence length by nonpartisan elected judges for violent crimes. For partisan elected and appointed judges, there are no significant effects.