Media partisanship and fundamental corporate decisions

Authors Knill, Liu, McConnell
Journal Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
Year 2022
Type Published Paper
Abstract Using the introduction of Fox News as a natural experiment, we investigate whether partisanship in television news coverage influences fundamental corporate decisions.We find that during the George W. Bush presidency, firms led by Republican-leaning managers headquartered in regions into which Fox was introduced shift upward their total investment expenditures and financial leverage. Our findings imply that in making fundamental corporate decisions, Republican-leaning managers are swayed by the Republican slant of Fox that presents an optimistic macroeconomic outlook. The results highlight the importance of heterogeneity in media slant in understanding the role of the media incorporate decision making.
Keywords Media slant, partisanship, corporate decision-making
URL https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-financial-and-quantitative-analysis/article/abs/media-partisanship-and-fundamental-corporate-decisions/0E3A5D1C6B5BC003B839D0E161AAE22D#access-block
Tags Archival Empirical  |   Experimental / Survey-Based Empirical  |   Manager / Firm Behavior  |   Media and Textual Analysis