This seminar examines how new communication technologies can influence political behaviour, democratic attitudes and economic activity under autocratic rule.
Speaker
Dr Arieda Muco
Assistant Professor of Economics, Central European University (Vienna)
Arieda Muço obtained her PhD in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting student at CEMFI, Madrid. Her research interests include political economy, economic history, development economics and law, combining causal inference and natural language processing methods.
Abstract
We investigate the role of new communication technologies in the fall of autocratic regimes. For this, we use a unique setting: the distribution of photocopy machines, the Xerox program, in communist Hungary. The photocopy machines were seen as a transformative technology, similar to the impact of the Gutenberg press. We use newly digitalized data on machine allocation between 1985 and 1989 and show that areas with machines are more likely to support democratic values, participate in elections, and establish more entrepreneurial activity in the short and long run. Moreover, we show that adjacent areas are also affected. Our results suggest that new communication technologies help overthrow autocracies by promoting democratic values even when political competition is limited and traditional media is censored.