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Trombetta, Federico (2019) Essays in political economy. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3714522~S15
Abstract
Chapter one explores the role of endogenous costly attention allocation in politics. I show that voters may choose to pay too much attention to politicians’ actions, and this induces too much political pandering. Moreover, when attention to the action and to the state of the world are both endogenous, voters may not pay enough attention the state. This model can be a demand-driven explanation of the under-provision of analytical contents by news channels.
Chapter two looks at the role of the media market structure in keeping outlets free to publish their findings. Building on the literature on media capture, the model highlights that high competition in the media market can make capture easier. Moreover, it highlights conditions on the parameters where the effect of competition on capture is non-monotonic. The model is motivated by empirical analysis of the digitization of terrestrial television in Europe.
Chapter three shows that it is not necessarily true that competition in the modern digital environment is pushing media outlets towards early release of less accurate information. More competitive environments may be more conducive to reputation building. Therefore, it is possible to have better reporting in a more competitive world. However, we show that the audience may be worse-off due to outlets’ better initial information. Finally, we show how a source may exploit the speed-accuracy trade-off.
Chapter four studies the effect of institutions on economic outcomes looking at the historical case of Medieval England. The leader of medieval Benedictine monasteries was elected by the monks. At the same time, monasteries were feudal landlords, alongside secular noblemen. This chapter shows that holdings governed by Benedictine monasteries were more productive than those controlled by secular landlords. We explore a range of potential channels, ruling out those that are not related to the different institutional structure.
| Item Type: | Thesis or Dissertation (PhD) | ||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Economics -- Political aspects -- Great Britain, Mass media -- Political aspects -- Great Britain, Mass media -- Economic aspects -- Great Britain, Social choice, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1066-1485, England -- Economic conditions -- 1066-1485 | ||||
| Official Date: | October 2019 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Department of Economics | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Lockwood, Ben ; Herrera, Helios | ||||
| Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) ; University of Warwick. Department of Economics | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | xxii, 240 leaves : colour illustrations, colour maps | ||||
| Language: | eng |
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