economics of censorship

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri May 17 09:03:48 PDT 2002


"The Demand for Censorship"

BY: CRAIG A. DEPKEN

University of Texas at Arlington

Department of Economics

Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:

http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=300859

Date: January 2001

Contact: CRAIG A. DEPKEN

Email: Mailto:depken at uta.edu

Postal: University of Texas at Arlington

Department of Economics

Box 19479 UTA

Arlington, TX 76019 UNITED STATES

Phone: 817-272-3290

Fax: 817-272-3145

ABSTRACT:

Censorship is the moral or legislative process by which society

"agrees" to limit what an individual can do, say, think, or see.

The proliferation of censorship movements of all kinds has

heretofore been relatively ignored by economists. In this study,

a conceptual model is developed describing the economic

rationale underlying an individual's relative support for

censorship, even if censorship is expected to reduce the amount

of acceptable information available. To support the conceptual

framework, the demand for Internet censorship is empirically

analyzed using survey data gathered on-line during 1998. The

results indicate the characteristics of those who tend to favor

censorship.

Keywords: political speech, Internet content, child

protection, first amendment, freedom



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