Tone of mass media news affect pledge amounts in reward crowdfunding campaign

Abstract

We study whether the tone of the daily news in mass media, used as a proxy for market sentiment, affects the typical daily pledge amount in reward crowdfunding campaigns. Based on unique data from over 350,000 pledges in reward crowdfunding campaigns in over 2,600 cities in Brazil, we find that market sentiment affects the willingness of backers to make larger pledges. Our unprecedented results reveal that good news induces pledges of larger amounts. The effect of tone over pledge amounts is inhibited by the geographic distance backer-entrepreneur, and it is reinforced by the income inequality in the pledger’s city.