Jesse Shapiro

"Ideological Segregation Online and Offline"

Thursday, October 27, 2011
3:30 p.m.
437 Arps Hall
1945 N High St., Columbus, OH 43201

To RSVP for this event, email Ann Powers at powers.108@osu.edu by Tuesday, October 25, 2011.

Jesse Shapiro is a professor of economics at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  His research focus is in the areas of industrial organization and political economy.

Shapiro has published in a number of journals including Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Econometrica, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Regional Science, and Journal of Urban Economics.

Shapiro is a faculty research fellow in labor studies at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an associate editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Before joining the Chicago Booth faculty, he was the inaugural Becker Fellow at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory.

Shapiro attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in statistics in 2001, and a PhD in economics in 2005. He is a 2011-12 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow.

Abstract
We use individual and aggregate data to ask how the Internet is changing the ideological segregation of the American electorate. Focusing on online news consumption, offline news consumption, and face-to-face social interactions, we define ideological segregation in each domain using standard indices from the literature on racial segregation.

We find that ideological segregation of online news consumption is low in absolute terms, higher than the segregation of most offline news consumption, and significantly lower than the segregation of face-to-face interactions with neighbors, co-workers, or family members. We find no evidence that the Internet is becoming more segregated over time.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Economics.

Jesse Shapiro
Professor of Economics
University of Chicago Booth School of Business