Handbook of Media Economics, vol 1A

Walfogel-style instruments, interacted with exogenous rival characteristics (BLP instru-

ments). In her case, she uses consumer demographics in the other counties served by a

rival newspaper. For example, if a paper sold in a sparsely populated suburban county is

headquartered in a populous central metropolitan county, it is likely to have high levels of

quality and variety. The headquarters county is taken as exogenous so that the demo-

graphic levels in that county are available as instruments that shift the choice set in

the suburban county. More specifically, the population demographics of “other

counties” where the newspaper is sold are excluded from the mean utility of the paper

in a given county. Therefore, “other county demographics” are