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Media bias and political consensus: Evidence from Berlusconi. How much does media bias affect electoral outcomes? This column examines the Italian case, where Berlusconi, the prime minister, has controlled six out of seven national channels for ten years. It exploits exogenous variation in viewers' exposure to Berlusconi using random switchovers from analogue to digital TV that increased free national channels tenfold. It argues the switch has caused a drop in Berlusconi’s vote share by 5.5 to 7.5 percentage points. For the third time in six years, Italians are called to vote for their national representatives. It is the sixth time that electors vote in a context of media bias.

For ten years during the period 1994-2011, Berlusconi has controlled six out of seven national channels, due to his dual role as a media tycoon and prime minister. Della Vigna and Kaplan (2007) provide evidence that the introduction of Fox News increased Republican vote by 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the 2000 Presidential elections. Italy’s Political Risk. By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from MacroBusiness. As reported on MB last week Moody’s slapped Italy with another downgrade noting the following factors: 1.

Italy is more likely to experience a further sharp increase in its funding costs or the loss of market access than at the time of our rating action five months ago due to increasingly fragile market confidence, contagion risk emanating from Greece and Spain and signs of an eroding non-domestic investor base. The risk of a Greek exit from the euro has risen, the Spanish banking system will experience greater credit losses than anticipated, and Spain’s own funding challenges are greater than previously recognized.2. You may remember that back in January S&P downgraded much of Europe based on five major points. And the country’s PMI tells the same story: The End of Berlusconi and the Future of Italy. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is on the way out, the story goes.

Come Monday, his center-right coalition, which has dominated Italian politics for nearly 20 years, will be a thing of the past, and Italy will be spared the wrath of the European debt crisis. The opposition thinks it is time to uncork the prosecco. But it is not. Italy is far from fixed. Berlusconi first walked the magnificent halls of the Palazzo Chigi -- the palatial prime minister's residence -- in 1994, when he was a media tycoon, football entrepreneur, a bon vivant, a billionaire, and all of a sudden founder of a political party, Forza Italia. Sophisticated analysts spurned the new party, but for two decades Forza Italia locked in the support of at least a third of the Italian electorate. It won three national elections.

Voters were captivated by Berlusconi's anti-establishment war cry: "I am a self-made man, not a politician! " Berlusconi's lifestyle was frivolous and excessive. Don't have an account? Can Italy Be Saved? - Michael Spence. Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space MILAN – As the economist Mario Monti’s new government takes office in Italy, much is at stake – for the country, for Europe, and for the global economy.

If reforms falter, public finances collapse, and anemic growth persists, Italy’s commitment to the euro will diminish as the perceived costs of membership come to outweigh the benefits. And Italy’s defection from the common currency – unlike that of smaller countries, like Greece – would threaten the eurozone to the core. Italy is a large economy, with annual GDP of more than $2 trillion. Its public debt is 120% of GDP, or roughly $2.4 trillion, which does not include the liabilities of a pension system in need of significant adjustments to reflect an aging population and increased longevity. But rising interest rates are causing the debt-service burden to become onerous and politically unsustainable. The need to refinance outstanding debt is not the only challenge. That is not all.

Italy - curators...

Why Italy is ‘Oh, so special’ Tax Evasion, Italian Style. On Sunday, as part of a strategy to show the rest of Europe how fiscally responsible the third most important nation in the eurozone (and the world’s seventh largest economy) is becoming, Italy sanctioned a T-man blitz over Milan. Members of the little-feared Guardia di Finanza, 580 of them in fact, descended on merchants of that prosperous city, and—amazingly—found that one third of all the places checked out were indeed hiding revenue from the taxman.

News of the raid was blasted all over TV; it was the front-page headline of every newspaper. And in all that coverage, as is all too customary in that country, not one cheat was either named or shamed. Or indeed punished. You can imagine just how terrorized all these tax evaders were: No sales slips get you a 159 euro fine, or a scolding. It depends. Mostly it depends on just how connected you are to those in power. Well, yes. Italy’s debt these days is around $2.2 trillion, or 120 percent of GDP.