Navegando por Autor "Cavgias, Alexsandros"

Agora exibindo 1 - 3 de 3

Edited Democracy: Media Manipulation and the News Coverage of Presidential Debates
(2019) LUCAS MARTINS NOVAES; Cavgias, Alexsandros; Corbi, Raphael Bottura; Meloni, Luis
Media manipulation in young democracies: evidence from the 1989 brazilian presidential election
(2024) Cavgias, Alexsandros; Corbi, Raphael; Meloni, Luis; Novaes, Lucas M.
We investigate how dominant media networks can manipulate voters in young democracies. During the first presidential election after the democratic transition in Brazil, TV Globo, the largest and most-watched network in the country, unexpectedly manipulated the news coverage of the last debate 2 days before the decisive second round. In a video segment, Globo unfavorably depicted the left-wing candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Using the geographical distribution of broadcaster-specific TV signals and the timing of election events, we identify the effect of the manipulation net of the effect of the debate itself, showing that Globo’s misleading reporting caused Lula to lose millions of votes. Our results showcase how the media can reshape an election in a single stroke, especially where the media is concentrated and politically inexperienced voters have few other sources of information.
Under pressure: women's leadership during the COVID-19 crisis
(2021) Bruce, Raphael; Cavgias, Alexsandros; Meloni, Luis; Remígio, Mário
In this paper, we study the effect of women's public leadership in times of crisis. More specifically, we use a regression discontinuity design in close mayoral races between male and female candidates to understand the impact of having a woman as a mayor during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. We provide evidence that municipalities under female leadership had fewer deaths and hospitalizations per 100 thousand inhabitants and enforced more non-pharmaceutical interventions (e.g., mask usage and prohibition of gatherings). We also show that these results are not due to measures taken before the pandemic or other observable mayoral characteristics such as education or political preferences. Finally, we provide evidence that these effects are stronger in municipalities where Brazil's far-right president, who publicly disavowed the importance of non-pharmaceutical interventions, had a higher vote share in the 2018 election. Overall, our findings provide credible causal evidence that female leaders outperformed male ones when dealing with a global policy issue. Moreover, our results also showcase the role local leaders can play in counteracting bad policies implemented by populist leaders at the national level.