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Negative advertising and electoral rules: an empirical evaluation of the Brazilian case

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  • Danilo P. Souza
  • Marcos Y. Nakaguma

Abstract

This paper assesses how electoral institutions shape candidates’ incentives about their political advertising strategies. Taking advantage of a discontinuity in the assigment of brazilian municipal election rules, we use a RDD approach to assess how the candidates campaign tone is affected by a shift from a single-ballot to a runoff system. Using an unique database about litigations involving mayor candidates in the elections of 2012 and 2016, results show that 2nd and 3rd placed candidates in the first round of a runoff election have a probability more than 50 p.p. higher of being part in a litigation regarding negative advertising when compared to a single round election.

Suggested Citation

  • Danilo P. Souza & Marcos Y. Nakaguma, 2018. "Negative advertising and electoral rules: an empirical evaluation of the Brazilian case," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2018_10, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2018wpecon10
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    elections; negative advertising; political advertising;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D79 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Other
    • C29 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Other

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