Opposition and Acceptance of New Technologies: The Effects of Role Models, Politics, and Substitutes

• In Event: Democratic Politics and Democratic Breakdown

Brief Overview

We study how opposition to new technologies erodes over time, using repeated referenda on the Grisons automobile ban (1900–1925). We exploit variation in train access, forced exposure, and political links to identify causal effects.

Authors

• Benedikt Lukas Marxer, University of Lucerne

• Christian Ochsner, CERGE-EI, Charles University