The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV

@article{Durante2019ThePL,
  title={The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV},
  author={Ruben Durante and Paolo Pinotti and Andrea Tesei},
  journal={American Economic Review},
  year={2019}
}
We study the political impact of commercial television in Italy exploiting the staggered introduction of Berlusconi’s private TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find that individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote for Berlusconi’s party in 1994, when he first ran for office. The effect persists for five elections and is driven by heavy TV viewers, namely the very young and the elderly. Regarding possible mechanisms, we find that… 
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129 Citations

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We investigate the political impact of entertainment television in Italy over the past thirty years by exploiting the staggered introduction of Silvio Berlusconi’s commercial TV network, Mediaset, in…
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