A tear in the iron curtain: : The impact of western television on consumption behavior

• Autores: Leonardo Bursztyn, Davide Cantoni
• Localización: The Review of economics and statistics, ISSN 0034-6535, Vol. 98, Nº 1, 2016, págs. 25-41
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00522
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• Resumen

  • This paper examines the impact of exposure toforeign media on the economic behavior of agents in a totalitarian regime. We study private consumption choices focusing on the former East Germany, where differential access toWestern 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 toWestern television on aggregate consumption levels. However, exposure toWestern broadcasts affects the composition of consumption, biasing choices in favor of categories of goods with a high intensity of prereunification advertisement. The effects vanish by 1998.