Information Networks and Collective Action: Evidence from the Women’s Temperance Crusade
利用铁路事故造成的外生网络变化，研究1873-1874年美国妇女禁酒运动如何通过铁路和电报网络扩散，发现地方报纸报道是关键渠道，且铁路与电报网络存在互补效应。
How do social interactions shape collective action, and how are they mediated by networked information technologies? We answer these questions studying the Temperance Crusade, a wave of anti-liquor protest activity spreading across 29 states between 1873 and 1874. Relying on exogenous variation in network links generated by railroad accidents, we provide causal evidence of social interactions driving the diffusion of the movement, mediated by rail and telegraph information about neighboring activity. Local newspaper coverage of the crusade was a key channel mediating these effects. Using an event-study methodology, we find strong complementarities between rail and telegraph networks in driving the movement’s spread.