Hi all,

This week at the Applied Statistics Workshop will be welcoming Michael Peress, Associate Professor of Political Science and Economics at SUNY-Stony Brook (and here at Harvard this year). He will be presenting work entitled "Does Newspaper Coverage Mediate the Economic Vote?" Please find the abstract below and on the website.

We will meet in CGIS Knafel Room 354 at noon and lunch will be provided.

Best,
Pam

Title: Does Newspaper Coverage Mediate the Economic Vote?

Abstract: Do voters punish incumbent governments when economic performance is poor or when the media report that economic performance is poor? We draw on an original data set of over 2 million newspaper articles reporting on the economy in 32 newspapers in 16 developed democracies over 32 years. We develop procedures for coding newspaper sentiment on the economy and apply our results to study the role of the media in driving the economic vote. Our results indicate voters respond directly to unemployment, but respond to newspaper coverage of growth. Our results suggest that newspapers play an important role in mediating the economic vote.