Citation

García-Jimeno C, Iglesias A, Yildirim P. Am. Econ. Rev. 2022; 112(1): 41-80.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, American Economic Association)

DOI

10.1257/aer.20180124

PMID

unavailable

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 and 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.

Language: en

Keywords

Belief; Canada: Pre-1913; Canada: Pre-1913, Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913, Economic History: Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services: U.S.; Communication; Information and Knowledge; Learning; Non-labor Discrimination, Railroads and Other Surface Transportation, Telecommunications, Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Search; Unawareness, Economics of Gender