| By: |
Maria De Paola;
Vincenzo Scoppa (Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica, Università della Calabria) |
| Abstract: |
To what extent individual choices are influenced by media exposure? We try to
provide evidence on this issue considering how the sales of lotto tickets are
determined by the size of the top prize (the jackpot) compared to the amount
of attention that media devote to the game. We use data on the Italian
SuperEnalotto (2003- 2010) and estimate tickets sales in relation to the
jackpot size and to several measures of lotto media coverage. To take into
account that media attention may be affected by the amount of tickets sold we
instrument media coverage with the availability of other newsworthy material
(sport events and disasters). It emerges that media attention to the game is
inversely related to the availability of other news. Two-Stage-Least Squares
Estimations show that, given the jackpot size, players spend more on lotto
when media attention to the game is higher. |
| Keywords: |
Media Influence, Media Exposure, Psychology and Economics, Lottery, Instrumental Variables |
| JEL: |
D83 D1 D81 |
| Date: |
2011–02 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clb:wpaper:201102&r=spo |