Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP14210 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details   |   Bibliographic Reference

Full Details

Title: Electoral Competition with Fake News

Author(s): Gene M. Grossman and Elhanan Helpman

Publication Date: December 2019

Keyword(s): Electoral Competition, fake news and policy positions

Programme Area(s): Public Economics

Abstract: Misinformation pervades political competition. We introduce opportunities for political can- didates and their media supporters to spread fake news about the policy environment and perhaps about parties'positions into a familiar model of electoral competition. In the baseline model with full information, the parties'positions converge to those that maximize aggregate welfare. When parties can broadcast fake news to audiences that disproportionately include their partisans, policy divergence and suboptimal outcomes can result. We study a sequence of models that impose progressively tighter constraints on false reporting and characterize situa- tions that lead to divergence and a polarized electorate.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14210

Bibliographic Reference

Grossman, G and Helpman, E. 2019. 'Electoral Competition with Fake News'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14210