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Irene Bertschek
;
David Frank Müller

political ignorance and the internet, replication data

We examine the link between Internet usage and political ignorance. In order to do so, we construct a novel index measuring individuals' indifference with respect to political issues, which determines the degree of individual political ignorance. Our descriptive econometric analysis is based on a rich dataset consisting of six surveys of individuals covering the time period 2001 to 2014 and being representative for the German electorate. The empirical results show that in the earlier years of Internet diffusion, there is a negative link between using the Internet and political ignorance. This link changes sign in later years of Internet diffusion. We discuss potential explanations of this observed change in the link such as information overload and the increase in heterogeneity of Internet users.

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Bertschek, Irene; Müller, David Frank (2022): Political Ignorance and the Internet, Replication Data. Version: 1. Journal of Economics and Statistics. Dataset. http://dx.doi.org/10.15456/jbnst.2022301.1627401848

Related Publication

Bertschek, I., Müller, D. (2022). Political Ignorance and the Internet. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, 243(1). doi: 10.1515/jbnst-2021-0066

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