The study presented in this video looks at effects of radio broadcasting before and during the Nazi dictatorship in Germany. As MAJA ADENA explains, an econometric analysis of the contents of aired programs and of political attitudes in the population show important effects of broadcasting before and after seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933: Before 1933, pro-democratic content had negative effects on voting for the NSDAP, and after that time pro-Nazi content had similarly strong positive effects on anti-Semitic violence and party membership in the NSDAP.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10102

Researcher

Maja Adena is a Postdoctoral Researcher in economics. She received her PhD from the Free University Berlin, where she worked as a research fellow until 2012. Ever since, Adena worked with the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB), where she acts not only as a researcher, but also as a member of the academic council.

Adena’s research interests reach from applied microeconomics to political economy and behavioural economics with a more specific interest in the economy of non-profit and charitable organisations.

Institution

Berlin Social Science Centre (WZB)

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center investigates societal change. The research focus is on problems of modern societies in a globalized world. Research areas include education and work, migration and the dynamics of political systems, market and choice, international politics and law. WZB research is theory-based, problem-oriented, often long-term and mostly based on international comparisons. Around 160 German and international researchers work at the WZB, including sociologists, political scientists, economists, legal scholars and historians. Research results are published for the scientific community as well as for experts in politics, business, the media and civic organizations. As a non-university research institute, the WZB is member of the Leibniz-Association. The WZB closely cooperates with universities in Berlin and beyond as well as with research institutions abroad. The WZB was founded in 1969 by members of the German parliament. The WZB is funded by the Federal government, he state of Berlin, and the community of German states. (Source: WZB)
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Original publication

Radio and the Rise of the Nazis in Prewar Germany

Adena Maja, Enikolopov Ruben, Petrova Maria, Zhuravskaya Ekaterina and Santarosa Veronica
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Published in 2015

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