War of the Waves: Radio and Resistance during World War II | Zendy

Stefano Gagliarducci | Zendy; Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato | Zendy; Francesco Sobbrio | Zendy; Guido Tabellini | Zendy

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War of the Waves: Radio and Resistance during World War II

Author(s) -

Stefano Gagliarducci,

Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato,

Francesco Sobbrio,

Guido Tabellini

Publication year - 2020

Publication title -

american economic journal applied economics

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 12.996

H-Index - 82

eISSN - 1945-7782

pISSN - 1945-7790

DOI - 10.1257/app.20190410

Subject(s) - authoritarianism , context (archaeology) , resistance (ecology) , world war ii , political science , politics , broadcasting (networking) , nazism , population , dictatorship , history , sociology , law , demography , democracy , computer security , computer science , biology , ecology , archaeology

We analyze the role of the media in coordinating and mobilizing insurgency against an authoritarian regime, in the context of the Nazi-fascist occupation of Italy during WWII. We study the effect of BBC radio on the intensity of internal resistance. By exploiting variations in monthly sunspot activity that affect the sky-wave propagation of BBC broadcasting toward Italy, we show that BBC radio had a strong impact on political violence. We provide further evidence to document that BBC radio played an important role in coordinating resistance activities but had no lasting role in motivating the population against the Nazi-fascist regime. (JEL D74, L82, N44)

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