Abstract
The television channel TV3 has played a controversial role in the Catalan politics since its creation in the early eighties for its alleged partisan bias and support for the Catalan secessionist movement. This paper examines the impact on electoral results stemming from the exposure to TV3 exploiting its staggered expansion across Catalan municipalities in the 1980s. We find that the introduction of TV3 increased voter turnout in the 1984 Catalan parliamentary election, but it did not have a significant impact on the share of votes received by Convergència i Unió, the Catalan nationalist force that has been commonly associated with this channel since its foundation.
Highlights
The literature on the political economy of media has grown rapidly and several excellent surveys have already been written on this topic (DellaVigna and Gentzkow 2010; Prat and Strömberg 2013; Sobbrio 2014; Strömberg 2015)
This paper examines the impact on electoral results stemming from the exposure to TV3 exploiting its staggered expansion across Catalan municipalities in the 1980s
We find that the introduction of TV3 increased voter turnout in the 1984 Catalan parliamentary election, but it did not have a significant impact on the share of votes received by Convergència i Unió, the Catalan nationalist force that has been commonly associated with this channel since its foundation
Summary
The literature on the political economy of media has grown rapidly and several excellent surveys have already been written on this topic (DellaVigna and Gentzkow 2010; Prat and Strömberg 2013; Sobbrio 2014; Strömberg 2015). We examine the impact of TV3’s availability on other political parties competing in the same election, we analyzed the treatment duration effect of the channel on voter turnout and the CiU’s vote share, and we estimate the persuasion rates. With some nuances, this aim was shared by other nationalist parties in Catalonia, the CiU was the one that led this project and founded the Corporation in 1983. This aim was shared by other nationalist parties in Catalonia, the CiU was the one that led this project and founded the Corporation in 1983 Since this political coalition has mainly managed the Catalan media. By April 1984 parliamentary elections, 67% (635 out of 941) of municipalities and 92% of population (or 77%, excluding Barcelona) was covered by TV3 (Fig. 1)
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