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Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011
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Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Dec 19, 2015

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Page 1: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy

Joel WaldfogelMoscow

October 28, 2011

Page 2: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Neat paper!

• Oodles of evidence trained on question: “does joint ownership of media outlet and movie studio cause better reviews?”– “oodles” means N → ∞

• Compelling controls, believable estimate• Comments– Earnest praise– Finding’s meaning– Effect of “concentration”

Page 3: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

• Elements of a good story…

Page 4: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

villains

Page 5: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

heroes

• Bias-detecting sleuths

Page 6: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Characters you’re not sure about until the end

Page 7: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Make a wish

• Suppose you wanted to know whether films receive better reviews at studio-owned media outlets

• Wish list: it would be nice to have a context with – Change in ownership, with reviews before and after– Data on multiple outlets’ reviews of same movies– Half a million observations

• Amazingly, this is what Stefano and Alex have!

Page 8: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Drum roll, please

• We have countenanced the devil• …and what does he look like?

Page 9: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Regular vs diabolical reviews

Page 10: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Another perspective

Answer: 3 points at Fox-owned, 0 at Time Warner, on a mean review of 60

Page 11: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Economic vs statistical significance

• N → ∞– SD of mean: σ/√N– Many things will become statistically significant – Will see *** in tables, but size matters

• Aside– Suppose N had been merely 100,000– Could have convinced me of no effect– Effect is hard to detect

Page 12: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Implications of results

• Does ownership affect reviews?– A series of case studies– Yes at Fox, no at Time Warner– Yes for some reviewers, no for others

• Would like an explanation of why sometimes yes

Page 13: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

What is the policy takeaway?

• Don’t let Murdoch own stuff?

• or

• “on balance, no evidence that it matters much”

Page 14: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Paper Motivation

• “Does Media Concentration Lead to Biased Coverage?”

• What do you think when you hear “media concentration”?

Page 15: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Possible effects of “concentration”

• Product positioning incentives associated with joint ownership– Internalization of business stealing externalities– This paper’s not about that

Page 16: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Competition and product quality?

• Does competition keep reviewers honest vs undermining ability to finance high fixed costs

• Would require variation in amount of competition• Not what this paper wants to be about

Page 17: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Product positioning and owner preferences

• Related to– Podolny and Scott-Morton • what movitates wine makers – “Love or Money?”

– Race and ownership • FCC had traditionally tried to promote minority

ownership

• Maybe change title– “concentration” evokes the wrong imagery here

Page 18: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Another point of contact

• This is a merger retrospective– Cf. Ashenfelter, Hosken, etc.

• Usually, look at price changes following merger– Selected sample of allowable mergers– Here, merger likely exogenous

• Post-merger product repositioning

Page 19: Comments on Della Vigna and Kennedy Joel Waldfogel Moscow October 28, 2011.

Thanks

• Neat paper!• Impressive exercise• Convincing estimates