EN
A measure is called $L^{p}$-improving if it acts by convolution as a bounded operator from $L^{q}$ to L² for some q < 2. Interesting examples include Riesz product measures, Cantor measures and certain measures on curves. We show that equicontractive, self-similar measures are $L^{p}$-improving if and only if they satisfy a suitable linear independence property. Certain self-affine measures are also seen to be $L^{p}$-improving.