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Spending Limits, Public Funding, and Election Outcomes

Author

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  • Nikolaj Broberg
  • Vincent Pons
  • Clemence Tricaud

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of campaign finance rules on electoral outcomes. In French departmental and municipal elections, candidates competing in districts above 9,000 inhabitants face spending limits and are eligible for public reimbursement. Using an RDD around the population threshold, we find that these rules increase competitiveness and benefit the runner-up of the previous race as well as new candidates, in departmental elections, while leaving the polarization of results and winners’ representativeness and quality unaffected. Incumbents are less likely to get reelected because they are less likely to run and obtain a lower vote share, conditional on running. These results appear to be driven by the reimbursement of campaign expenditures, not spending limits. We do not find such effects in municipal elections, which we attribute to the use of a proportional list system instead of plurality voting.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikolaj Broberg & Vincent Pons & Clemence Tricaud, 2022. "Spending Limits, Public Funding, and Election Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 29805, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29805
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    Cited by:

    1. Huet-Vaughn, Emiliano, 2023. "Minimum Wages and Voting: Assessing the Political Returns to Redistribution outside the Tax System," IZA Discussion Papers 16416, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Bazzi, Samuel & Labanca, Claudio, 2023. "Campaign Connections," IZA Discussion Papers 16166, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • K16 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Election Law
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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