Empirical Microeconomics | Public Economics | Political Economy

Marcel Garz

Jönköping University

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Vita

I am an assistant professor of economics at Jönköping University. Most of my work focuses on the economics of news markets, especially from an empirical perspective. I am particularly interested in issues with political implications, such as media slant and negativity. My research is often based on panel data and emphasizes the identification of causal effects.

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Contact

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Jönköping International Business School, Office B5009, Gjuterigatan 5, 55318 Jönköping, Sweden

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marcel.garz[a]ju.se

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+46 36 10 1782

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Google Scholar

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Working Papers

Media Influence on Vote Choices: Unemployment News and Incumbents' Electoral Prospects

With Greg Martin. July 2019.

Partisan Selective Engagement: Evidence from Facebook

With Jil Sörensen and Daniel Stone. July 2019.

Is There Within-Outlet Demand for Media Slant? Evidence from US Presidential Campaign News

With Gaurav Sood, Daniel Stone, and Justin Wallace. September 2019.

Cartels in the European Union, Antitrust Action, and Public Attention

With Sabrina Maaß. November 2019.

Quantitative Methods in Economic Research on Media and Communication

November 2018.

Publications

Political Scandals, Newspapers, and the Election Cycle

With Jil Sörensen, 2019. Forthcoming in Political Behavior (replication data and code).

Cautionary Tales: Celebrities, the News Media, and Participation in Tax Amnesties

With Verena Pagels. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 155: 288-300, 2018 (working paper version; replication data and code).

Effects of Unemployment News on Economic Perceptions – Evidence from German Federal States

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 68: 172-190, 2018 (working paper version; replication data and code).

Retirement, Consumption of Political Information, and Political Knowledge

European Journal of Political Economy, 53: 109-119, 2018 (working paper version; code for replication).

Politicians under Investigation: The News Media’s Effect on the Likelihood of Resignation

With Jil Sörensen. Journal of Public Economics, 153: 82-91, 2017 (working paper version; replication data and code).

The Online Market for Illegal Copies of Magazines: A German Case Study

With A. Rott and M. Wass von Czege. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59: 169–183, 2015.

Bad News Sells: The Demand for News Magazines and the Tone of Their Covers

With M. Arango-Kure and A. Rott. Journal of Media Economics, 27: 199–214, 2014.

Good News and Bad News: Evidence of Media Bias in Unemployment Reports

Public Choice, 161: 499–515, 2014.

Labour Market Segmentation: Standard and Non-Standard Employment in Germany

German Economic Review, 14: 349–371, 2013.

Unemployment Expectations, Excessive Pessimism, and News Coverage

Journal of Economic Psychology, 34: 156–168, 2013.

Employment and Wages in Germany Since the 2004 Deregulation of the Temporary Agency Industry

International Labour Review, 152: 307–326, 2013.

Job Insecurity Perceptions and Media Coverage of Labor Market Policy

Journal of Labor Research, 33: 528–544, 2012.

Current

Funding for project on Swedish newspaper markets

The Swedish Competition Authority has approved funding in the amount of approx. 180,000 euro for a project of mine entitled “Media Competition and Media Slant in Swedish Newspapers” (with Jonna Rickardsson). The project investigates how competition in local media markets affects the diversity of opinions in newspaper coverage. Specially, we (1) construct an index of ideological slant, (2) investigate which motives of media owners drive the slant, and (3) estimate the causal effect of competition on slant. The results aim to inform the debate on media regulation, with a focus on press subsidies and the measurement of media concentration. Posted: Oct. 03, 2019

4th Economics of Media Bias Workshop

After a successful start of the series in June 2015, the fourth Economics of Media Bias Workshop will take place on February 21-22, 2019, in Berlin, Germany. Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi University) will deliver the keynote speech. The workshop, which is organized by my colleagues and me, addresses the forms, causes, and consequences of media bias, especially in news markets. The program can be downloaded here. Posted: Dec. 04, 2018 (updated: Feb. 12, 2019)

Investigating the “Hoeneß effect”

In a new study, my co-author and I investigate whether press coverage on celebrities with tax issues affects the behavior of other tax payers. We compile an original data set for Germany, including regional information on the amount of tax payers using amnesty regulations to voluntarily disclose taxes they have evaded. The data set also includes counts of news reports published by 6 national and 54 local newspapers that address celebrity tax evaders who were publicly tried between January 2010 and June 2016. To identify the causal effect, we use exogenous variation in the reporting, resulting from disasters and terrorist attacks that coincide with the celebrity trials. Instrumental variable estimates suggest that an increase in news coverage by the amount of an average trial raises participation in the tax amnesty program by approximately 22.5%. Posted: Sep. 1, 2017 (updated: Sep. 4, 2018)

Research Network obtains funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG)

My colleagues and I have been working on topics related to media bias for some time already. The German Research Foundation (DFG) recently agreed to support a proposal for an international, scientific network. The Research Network Economics of Media Bias promotes the discussion of ideas and work in the area, and it aims at integrating young researchers by connecting them with more experienced economists. As part of the network, it will be possible to continue the series of workshops “Economics of Media Bias”. Posted: Apr. 14, 2016