Regulation via threats: politics, media coverage, and oil pricing decisions

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 54, Heft Spring 90

Abstract

Using the oil crisis of the late 1970s as a case study, examines the influences of public opinion and media attention on the credibility of regulatory threats. Uses television news coverage of various topics to measure 3 factors and hypothesizes that firms threatened with potential regulation restrained price increases, with the largest and most publicly visible firms exercising the greatest restraint. (Abstract amended)