We are pleased to invite you to the next Baltic Economic Association Online Research Seminars and are delighted to welcome Boris Ginzburg. Boris is an associate professor of economics and, from 2023, a Ramón y Cajal researcher, at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He holds a PhD from the University College London. Boris does theoretical and experimental research on political economy – in particular, on voting, collective action, and on the role of bounded rationality and social preferences. His work has been published in journals such as the Economic Journal and the Journal of Public Economics.
🔉 Speaker: Boris Ginzburg (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
📆 Date: November 3th, 2022
⏰ Time: 5:00 p.m.
📺 Location: Online https://bit.ly/3sB73CS
Meeting ID: 812 2516 5874
Passcode: 192208
Political agents often attempt to influence elections through „troll farms” – organisations that flood social media platforms with messages emulating genuine information. We show that such disinformation tactics are more effective when voters are otherwise well-informed, as well as when they are ideologically homogeneous. Consequently, societies with high-quality media are more vulnerable to electoral manipulation, and promotion of informative but non-expert opinions may help in counteracting troll farms. At the same time, increased polarisation can reduce the negative effect of troll farms. Finally, when voters deviate from Bayesian rationality, efficiency of the electoral outcome can improve.
