The Demand for Censorship

Censorship is the moral or legislative process by which society "agrees" to limit what an individual can do, say, think, or see. The proliferation of censorship movements of all kinds has heretofore been relatively ignored by economists. In this study, a conceptual model is developed describing the economic rationale underlying an individual's relative support for censorship, even if censorship is expected to reduce the amount of acceptable information available. To support the conceptual framework, the demand for Internet censorship is empirically analyzed using survey data gathered on-line during 1998. The results indicate the characteristics of those who tend to favor censorship