Networks Webinar - Pinar Yildirim
The Janeway Institute hosts the Networks Webinar Series which is organised by George Charlson, Sanjeev Goyal, Matt Elliott and Akhil Vohra. For the talk on Friday 19th November 2021, 2:00pm - 3:00pm, Pinar Yildirim (Pennsylvania) will be the speaker.
Title: Information Networks and Collective Action: Evidence from the Women’s Temperance Crusade (joint with Camilo Garcia Jimeno)
Abstract: How do social interactions shape collective action, and how are they mediated by networked information technologies? We answer these questions studying the Temperance Crusade, a wave of anti-liquor protest activity spreading across 29 states between 1873-1874. Relying on exogenous variation in network links generated by railroad accidents, we provide causal evidence of social interactions driving the diffusion of the movement, mediated by rail and telegraph information about neighboring activity. Local newspaper coverage of the Crusade was a key channel mediating these effects. Using an event-study methodology, we find strong complementarities between rail and telegraph networks in driving the movement’s spread.
Link to paper; https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3904936