Information technology and the newsprint demand in Western Europe: a Bayesian approach

This paper focuses on the impacts of new information technology on newsprint demand in a sample of West European countries (Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). It is hypothesized that information technology, through the ready and free availability of news content on the Internet, could induce a structural shift in the newsprint consumption pattern in these markets. Econometric analyses based on historical data for the four countries mentioned above do not yet support this hypothesis. Based on evidence from the United States, where Internet penetration is higher, and several recently published market studies, there is, however, reason to expect stagnating newsprint consumption in Western Europe. By using Bayesian demand models, we try to incorporate prior information from these market studies in the econometric analysis. A classical demand model, based solely on historical data from 1971 to 1999, is estimated for comparison with the Bayesian models. Predictions for newsprint consumption based on the Bayesian approach show lower future consumption levels than those predicted by the classical models, which are commonly used in forest product demand studies. We conclude that Bayesian models carry the potential to improve the quality of forest products demand analyses when a structural break can be expected and sufficient information on its dynamics is available.