Broadband Internet and Political Participation: Evidence for Germany
研究了宽带互联网接入对德国选民投票率的影响，利用距离电话网络互联点的远近作为工具变量，发现宽带可用性提高了投票参与。
Summary Previous studies found the introduction of the today well established media radio and television to affect political participation. This paper evaluates the effect of the relatively recent introduction of a new medium, broadband internet. OLS results suggest a positive association between DSL availability and voter participation across G erman municipalities. However, the roll‐out of DSL networks is not random. The paper exploits the fact that DSL availability depends on a municipality's distance to the nearest interconnection point to the existing voice‐telephony network. Instrumental‐variable results using this distance to predict DSL availability confirm the effect of DSL availability on voter participation.