A Tear in the Iron Curtain: The Impact of Western Television on Consumption Behavior / Leonardo Bursztyn, Davide Cantoni.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bursztyn, Leonardo.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Cantoni, Davide.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20403.

NBER working paper series no. w20403

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Tear in the Iron Curtain

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

This paper examines the impact of exposure to foreign media on the economic behavior of agents in a totalitarian regime. We study private consumption choices focusing on former East Germany, where differential access to Western television was determined by geographic features. Using data collected after the transition to a market economy, we find no evidence of a significant impact of previous exposure to Western television on aggregate consumption levels. However, exposure to Western broadcasts affects the composition of consumption, biasing choices in favor of categories of goods with high intensity of pre-reunification advertisement. The effects vanish by 1998.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2014.