Economics and Business Working Papers Serieshttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/182024-03-19T08:29:49Z2024-03-19T08:29:49ZMedia persuasion through slanted language: Evidence from the coverage of immigrationDjourelova, Milenahttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/448012020-05-26T01:34:12Z2020-05-02T00:00:00ZMedia persuasion through slanted language: Evidence from the coverage of immigration
Djourelova, Milena
Can the language used by mass media to cover policy relevant issues affect readers' policy preferences? I examine this question for the case of immigration, exploiting an abrupt ban on the term "illegal immigrant" in wire content distributed to media outlets by the Associated Press (AP). Using text data on AP dispatches and the content of a large number of US print and online outlets, I find that articles mentioning "illegal immigrant" decline by 28% in outlets that rely on AP relative to others. This change in language appears to have had a tangible impact on readers' views on immigration. Following AP's ban, individuals exposed to outlets relying more heavily on AP tend to support less restrictive immigration and border security policies. The effect is driven by frequent readers and does not apply to views on issues other than immigration.
2020-05-02T00:00:00ZThe evolution of inequity in the access to health care in Spain: 1987-2001García Gómez, PilarLópez, Ángelhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/10352020-05-26T01:34:11Z2004-03-01T00:00:00ZThe evolution of inequity in the access to health care in Spain: 1987-2001
García Gómez, Pilar; López, Ángel
This paper reports an analysis of the evolution of equity in access to health care in Spain over the period 1987-2001, a time span covering the development of the modern Spanish National Health System. Our measures of access are the probabilities of visiting a doctor, using emergency services and being hospitalised. For these three measures we obtain indices of horizontal inequity from microeconometric models of utilization that exploit the individual information in the Spanish National Health Surveys of 1987 and 2001. We find that by 2001 the system has improved in the sense that differences in income no longer lead to different access given the same level of need. However, the tenure of private health insurance leads to differences in access given the same level of need, and its contribution to inequity has increased over time, both because insurance is more concentrated among the rich and because the elasticity of utilization for the three services has increased too.
2004-03-01T00:00:00ZTransaction-tax evasion in the housing marketGarcia Montalvo, JoséPiolatto, AmedeoRaya, Josep M.http://hdl.handle.net/10230/448002020-05-26T01:34:10Z2019-03-01T00:00:00ZTransaction-tax evasion in the housing market
Garcia Montalvo, José; Piolatto, Amedeo; Raya, Josep M.
We model the behaviour of a buyer trying to evade the real estate transfer tax. We identify over-appraisal as a key, easily-observable element that is inversely related with tax evasion. We conclude that the tax authority could focus auditing eorts on low-appraisal transactions. We include `behavioural'components (shame and stigma) allowing to introduce buyers'(education) and societal (social capital) characteristics that explain individual and idiosyncratic variations.Our empirical analysis conrms the predictions using a unique database, where we directly observe: real payment, value declared to the authority,appraisal, buyers' educational level and local levels of corruption and trust.
2019-03-01T00:00:00ZElectoral platforms, implemented policies and abstentionLlavador, Humbertohttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/9372020-05-26T01:34:09Z2001-09-01T00:00:00ZElectoral platforms, implemented policies and abstention
Llavador, Humberto
Recent studies of American politics evidence that political polarization of both the electorate and the political elite have moved 'almost in tandem for the past half century' (McCarty et al., 2003, p.2), and that party polarization has steadily increased since the 1970s. On the other hand, the empirical literature on party platforms and implemented policies has consistently found an imperfect but nonnegligible correlation between electoral platforms and governmental policies: while platforms tend to be polarized, policies are moderate or centrist. However, existing theoretical models of political competition are not manifestly compatible with these observations. In this paper, we distinguish between electoral platforms and implemented policies by incorporating a non-trivial policy-setting process. It follows that voters may care not only about the implemented policy but also about the platform they support with their vote. We find that while parties tend to polarize their positions, the risk of alienating their constituency prevents them from radicalizing. The analysis evidences that the distribution of the electorate, and not only the (expected) location of a pivotal voter, matters in determining policies. Our results are consistent with the observation of polarized platforms and moderate policies, and the alienation and indifference components of abstention.
2001-09-01T00:00:00Z