Events

Prof. Tianyi Wang
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
University of Toronto

From the late 1940s through the ‘50s, anti-communist hysteria swept Cold War America, leading to widespread political repression during the Second Red Scare. Among its many targets, hundreds of Hollywood professionals were accused and investigated for their alleged communist ties. This paper studies the career and political impacts of the anti-communist witch hunt in Hollywood. Using a matched difference-in-differences approach, we find that the accused actors, writers, and directors experienced a large and significant decline in creative output that lasted for about a decade. The effects were mostly driven by supply-side factors. The quality of the creative output also suffered. In addition, we document a chilling effect on the types of films being made: screenwriters who had previously worked with a future-accused co-worker made fewer films on controversial or progressive topics, such as those dealing with class and labor issues. Moreover, consistent with evidence that Hollywood films became more conservative during this era, we find that counties with greater movie theater penetration experienced an increase in Republican support in presidential elections after the start of the Hollywood investigations.