Does Fleet Street shape politics? Estimating the Effect of Newspaper Coverage about Globalization on the Support for Unemployment Insurance

Protte, Benjamin

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URL:	https://ub-madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/32555
URN:	urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-325552
Document Type:	Working paper
Year of publication:	2012
The title of a journal, publication series:	Working Paper Series
Volume:	12-19
Place of publication:	Mannheim
Publication language:	English
Institution:	School of Law and Economics > Finanzwissenschaft u. Wirtschaftspolitik (Janeba 2004-)
MADOC publication series:	Department of Economics > Working Paper Series
Subject:	330 Economics
Classification:	JEL: F15 , H11 , H55 , L82 , D78,
Keywords (English):	Globalization , Compensation Hypothesis , Welfare State , Media , Quantitative Text Analysis
Abstract:	In this paper, I quantify the role of media in the formation of support for unemployment insurance. Theory suggests that individuals who feel threatened by globalization demand compensatory policies. Using a novel method of quantitative text analysis, I derive measures on the stance to globalization for all major British newspapers between 2001 and 2005. Results of regressing individual demand for unemployment insurance on my measure of globalization-specific newspaper positions show a consistent, sizable, and significant effect. This effect is in line with theoretical predictions and is robust to the inclusion of various controls such as trade effects and to accounting for biases resulting from self-selection of readers into newspapers with similar policy attitudes.