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Job Market Paper

The Unintended Consequences of Internet Diffusion: Evidence from Malaysia


Abstract:

Can the introduction of the internet bolster the opposition in a semi-authoritarian regime? I examine this question using evidence from Malaysia, where the incumbent coalition lost its 40-year monopoly on power in 2008. I match IP addresses with physical locations to construct a measure of internet growth in Malaysia from 2004 to 2008. Using an instrumental variable approach to account for endogenous internet placement, I find that areas with higher internet penetration experience higher turnout and higher turnover, with the internet accounting for one-third of the 11% swing against the incumbent party in 2008. In fact, the results suggest that, in the absence of the internet, the opposition would not have achieved its historic upset in the 2008 elections.

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Other Papers

To Whom Do We Pay Attention when Following the Crowd?


Abstract:

When observing the behavior of players in a sequence, from whom do we learn the most? To answer this question I draw on a meta-dataset of 13 laboratory experiments on social learning. I find that people behave contrary to the predictions of the prevailing models used to understand social learning and information cascades. Under Bayes Nash Equilibrium, the most informative signals come from the first player in the sequence. Under logit QRE a cascade break should be particularly informative, revealing the private signal. However, I find that agents learn most not from the first player but from the decision directly preceding their own. Furthermore, I find no evidence of learning from cascade breaks.