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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01ff365846z
Title: Essays on Political Economy, Trade, and Immigration in the United States: Evidence from the Use of Media
Authors: Sampathkumar, Vivek
Advisors: Kuziemko, Ilyana
Contributors: Economics Department
Subjects: Economics
Issue Date: 2022
Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University
Abstract: I empirically analyze how immigrant communities develop their own media and how politicians communicate with voters under changing political and economic conditions. In the first chapter, I construct novel data on the historical availability of foreign language publications in different parts of the United States between 1871 and 1960. This data is then carefully combined with full count census data and data extracted from aggregate tables in census publications for years where individual data is unavailable. Generalized additive models are used to estimate trends in the relationship between the characteristics of immigrant populations and the group-specific media they consume. I further explore how these relationships vary by group and over time. In the second chapter, co-authored with Alexander Wise, we consider the extent to which trade and globalization or China are more salient issues in political campaigns in places where there was greater exposure to competition from Chinese manufacturing in the early 2000s. We construct trade-exposure measures based on gross trade flows and two methods of calculating value-added trade flows. To assess political salience, we use data on advertising in federal elections in the United States from 2002-2012. We exploit variation across electoral units and across the media markets where television advertising is purchased. We find that trade exposure measures are related to the increased prevalence of ads that mention China and associated economic concerns, such as trade or jobs. Moreover, we find that this relationship is much stronger when using the more precise value-added exposure measures. The third chapter investigates whether Congressional candidates shifted the way they presented their ideology to voters when the constituencies they faced changed as a result of the redistricting that followed the 2010 Census. I collect a novel dataset consisting of issue position text from archived Congressional campaign websites. I use the Congressional Record to model the ideological content of phrases. These models are then used to estimate the ideological position of the content on candidate websites. I investigate how these estimated ideologies change in response to changes in the districts candidates face.
URI: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01ff365846z
Alternate format: The Mudd Manuscript Library retains one bound copy of each dissertation. Search for these copies in the library's main catalog: catalog.princeton.edu
Type of Material: Academic dissertations (Ph.D.)
Language: en
Appears in Collections:Economics

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