Replication data for: Media Bias in China

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Bei Qin; David Strömberg; Yanhui Wu

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Project Citation:

Qin, Bei, Strömberg, David, and Wu, Yanhui. Replication data for: Media Bias in China. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2018. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113189V1

Project Description

Summary: This paper examines whether and how market competition affected the political bias of government-owned newspapers in China from 1981 to 2011. We measure media bias based on coverage of government mouthpiece content (propaganda) relative to commercial content. We first find that a reform that forced newspaper exits (reduced competition) affected media bias by increasing product specialization, with some papers focusing on propaganda and others on commercial content. Second, lower-level governments produce less-biased content and launch commercial newspapers earlier, eroding higher-level governments' political goals. Third, bottom-up competition intensifies the politico-economic tradeoff, leading to product proliferation and less audience exposure to propaganda.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      L31 Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
      L82 Entertainment; Media
      O14 Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
      O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
      P26 Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Political Economy; Property Rights
      P31 Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-12]

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