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Corporate Donations and Political Rhetoric: Evidence from a National Ban

Author

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  • Cagé, Julia
  • LePennec, Caroline
  • Mougin, Elisa

Abstract

Do campaign finance regulations influence politicians? We study the effects of a French ban on corporate donations passed in 1995. We use a difference-in-differences approach and a novel dataset combining the campaign manifestos issued by every candidate running for a seat in the French parliament with detailed data on their campaign contributions. We show that banning corporate donations discourages candidates from advertising their local presence during the campaign, as well as economic issues. The ban also leads candidates from non-mainstream parties to use more polarized language. These findings suggest that private donors shape politicians’ topics of interest, and that campaign finance reforms may affect the information made available to voters through their impact on candidates’ rhetoric.

Suggested Citation

  • Cagé, Julia & LePennec, Caroline & Mougin, Elisa, 2022. "Corporate Donations and Political Rhetoric: Evidence from a National Ban," CEPR Discussion Papers 16774, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16774
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caroline Le Pennec, 2020. "Strategic Campaign Communication: Evidence from 30,000 Candidate Manifestos," SoDa Laboratories Working Paper Series 2020-05, Monash University, SoDa Laboratories.
    2. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro & Matt Taddy, 2019. "Measuring Group Differences in High‐Dimensional Choices: Method and Application to Congressional Speech," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1307-1340, July.
    3. Matt Taddy, 2013. "Multinomial Inverse Regression for Text Analysis," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 108(503), pages 755-770, September.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Elections; Campaign finance; Corporate donations; Campaign manifestos; Political rhetoric; Text analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations

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