Media-politics interaction in times of economic crisis: a comparative study of Spain and the Netherlands

This paper investigates the multi-directional causal relationships between stock market ratings, negative economic coverage in two national newspapers and parliamentary questions addressing negative aspects of the economy in Spain and the Netherlands. Weekly-level Vector Autoregression (VAR) analyses demonstrate for both countries that newspaper coverage is affected by stock market ratings and parliamentary questions. Furthermore, in both countries, newspaper coverage impacts stock market ratings, while parliamentary questions also influence the stock market, but only in Spain. In this country, newspaper coverage also affects parliament. A more detailed analysis shows that in Spain the newspaper that is close to the government is ignored by the opposition as a source for parliamentary questions, but also ignores the attention the opposition pays to negative economic developments in its parliamentary questions. In the Netherlands, we do not find any differences across newspapers. This finding reflects the differences in media systems between the two countries.