A Theory of Small Campaign Contributions / Laurent Bouton, Micael Castanheira, Allan Drazen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bouton, Laurent.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Castanheira, Micael.

Drazen, Allan.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24413.

NBER working paper series no. w24413

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

We propose a theory of small campaign contributions driven by an electoral motive, i.e., the desire to influence election outcomes. Though small donors take as given the actions of others, strategic interactions induce patterns consistent with empirical findings, e.g., election closeness and underdog effects. We also study different forms of campaign finance laws, and show why caps should be combined with a progressive tax on contributions. Next, we introduce large donors and show that several conclusions in the literature may be significantly modified by the interaction with small donors. Throughout, we discuss the empirical implications of our findings.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2018.