The influence of negative newspaper coverage on consumer confidence: the Dutch case

This paper studies the empirical relationship between the real economy, consumer confidence and economic news coverage in national newspapers for the Netherlands during the period 1990-2009. Media-attention for economic developments is associated with consumer confidence, with more negative news decreasing consumer confidence; this result holds after controlling for the real economy (stock-market). The relationship differs for different business-cycles. The effect is in particular stronger for the months following the beginning of the credit-crisis. This suggests that in line with many popular concerns negative news is among factors influencing the hardness of the landing of the current credit-crisis.