Media Control and Market Segmentation in China

Spring 2015 Grant Recipient

Graduate Student

Matthew Shi(Economics) China has one of the largest media markets in the world. But most media providers in China - including all television stations and cable companies - are stated-owned. This raises questions about efficiency of such systems. We take a novel approach to the subject by combining economics theory and a unique data-set on China's media. We address a set of non-traditional questions in the field of China's media: do state-owned media allow too many TV ads? Do they subsidize cable access from their ad revenue? Are there too many channels with duplication of media contents?