Television and Voter Turnout*
利用电视引入时间在不同市场的差异，发现电视显著降低了选民投票率，可解释1950年代以来投票率下降的四分之一到一半，机制是电视替代了报纸等政治信息更丰富的媒体。
I use variation across markets in the timing of television's introduction to identify its impact on voter turnout. The estimated effect is significantly negative, accounting for between a quarter and a half of the total decline in turnout since the 1950s. I argue that substitution away from other media with more political coverage provides a plausible mechanism linking television to voting. As evidence for this, I show that the entry of television in a market coincided with sharp drops in consumption of newspapers and radio, and in political knowledge as measured by election surveys. I also show that both the information and turnout effects were largest in off-year congressional elections, which receive extensive coverage in newspapers but little or no coverage on television.