Internet Roll-Out and Attitudes towards Abortion: Evidence from Chile

• In Event: 40816 - Digital Lives and Social Ties: Examining Identity, Agency, and Influence Online

Abstract

While cultural diffusion approaches predict that new mass media will further disseminate gender-egalitarian scripts, recent evidence suggests that internet-based outlets may increase polarization around ideologically contested issues. We examine how exposure to high-speed broadband at the municipality level impacted individuals' support for abortion policies. We focus on the case of Chile between 2012 and 2019, a period when abortion attitudes radically changed in this country. In particular, we leverage the temporal and geographical variation in Chile's roll-out of high-speed internet and combine it with repeated public opinion data (LAPOP Survey). We estimate two-way fixed effects and staggered event-study models while exploring heterogeneous treatment effects according to individuals' socioeconomic status, age, gender, and religion. Our preliminary findings indicate that access to high-speed internet increases support for abortion policies when the mother's health is at risk, particularly among respondents residing in municipalities where at least 75 percent of the population is exposed to high-speed broadband. Notably, the effect is mostly driven by less educated respondents.

Authors

• Daniela Urbina, University of Southern California

• Pablo Argote, University of Southern California