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Strategic Campaign Communication: Evidence from 30,000 Candidate Manifestos

Author

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  • Caroline Le Pennec

Abstract

Politicians seeking to persuade voters may not always be able to say what they would like to say. Adopting policy positions opposite to that of their party or contradicting their previous policy announcements may be costly. I use computational text analysis on 30,000 candidate manifestos from two-round French elections to show that politicians take these costs into account, by toeing the party line and sticking to their platform, while also strategically adjusting their campaign communication and advertising neutral non-policy issues when they need to reach a broader electorate. I provide suggestive evidence that this moderation of electoral discourse predicts better performance in office and may therefore provide valuable information to voters.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Le Pennec, 2024. "Strategic Campaign Communication: Evidence from 30,000 Candidate Manifestos," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(658), pages 785-810.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:134:y:2024:i:658:p:785-810.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/uead082
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    Cited by:

    1. Julia Cagé & Caroline Le Pennec & Elisa Mougin, 2021. "Corporate Donations and Political Rhetoric: Evidence from a National Ban," Working Papers hal-03877943, HAL.
    2. Julia Cage & Edgard Dewitte, 2021. "It Takes Money to Make MPs: Evidence from 150 Years of British Campaign Spending," Working Papers hal-03384143, HAL.
    3. Edoardo Cefalà, 2022. "The political consequences of mass repatriation," Discussion Papers 2022-05, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    4. Julia Cagé & Edgard Dewitte, 2025. "It Takes Money to Make MPs: Evidence from 160 Years of British Campaign Spending," Post-Print hal-05446470, HAL.
    5. Julia Cagé & Caroline Le Pennec & Elisa Mougin, 2024. "Firm Donations and Political Rhetoric: Evidence from a National Ban," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 217-256, August.
    6. Galasso, Vincenzo & Dano, Kevin & Ferlenga, Francesco & LePennec, Caroline & Pons, Vincent, 2022. "Coordination and Incumbency Advantage in Multi-Party Systems - Evidence from French Elections," CEPR Discussion Papers 17600, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/1dp7827s4n8ht8fk3qhmeuvd0o is not listed on IDEAS
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1dp7827s4n8ht8fk3qhmeuvd0o is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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