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Mass Media, Instrumental Information, and Electoral Accountability

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Bruns

    (University of Goettingen)

  • Oliver Himmler

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)

Abstract
Journalism is widely believed to be crucial for holding elected officials accountable. At the same time economic theory has a hard time providing an instrumental explanation for the existence of “accountability journalism”. According to the common Downsian reasoning, rational voters should not be willing to pay for information out of purely instrumental motives because the individual probabilities of casting the decisive vote are typically very low. We show that this rationale does not apply when a group of voters shares a common goal such as accountability and information is delivered via mass media. In contrast to the pessimistic Downsian view, rational voters can have a considerable willingness to pay for the provision of instrumental information in these scenarios. Our model thus reconciles the rational voter approach with the common perception of journalism as a watchdog that holds elected officials accountable.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Bruns & Oliver Himmler, 2016. "Mass Media, Instrumental Information, and Electoral Accountability," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2016_01, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2016_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Sendhil Mullainathan & Andrei Shleifer, 2005. "The Market for News," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1031-1053, September.
    2. Devdariani, Saba & Hirsch, Alexander V., 2023. "Voter attention and electoral accountability," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    accountability; elections; information; media;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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