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Small Campaign Donors

Author

Listed:
  • Laurent Bouton
  • Julia Cagé
  • Edgard Dewitte
  • Vincent Pons

Abstract

We build a new dataset of all 340 million individual contributions reported to the U.S. Federal Election Commission 2005-2020 to study the characteristics and behavior of small campaign donors. The reporting requirements of fundraising platforms such as ActBlue enable us to observe contribution-level information on the vast majority of small donations, which have grown rapidly since 2005. Small donors differ from large donors in gender, ethnicity, and income, and they are more representative of the U.S. population. They act less strategically than large donors, respond more to candidates’ public prominence, and are more susceptible to TV and social media ads.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurent Bouton & Julia Cagé & Edgard Dewitte & Vincent Pons, 2022. "Small Campaign Donors," NBER Working Papers 30050, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30050
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    Cited by:

    1. Waldfogel, Sarah, 2025. "Recovering voice through out-of-district donations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    2. Parmigiani, Alberto, 2025. "Campaign contributions and legislative behavior: Evidence from U.S. Congress," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    3. Crutzen, Benoît S.Y. & Flamand, Sabine, 2023. "Leaders, factions and the determinants of electoral success," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Lambert, Thomas & Mishra, Prachi, 2021. "The Politics of the Paycheck Protection Program," CEPR Discussion Papers 16842, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Karol, Stephanie, 2025. "Taking from charity? Political contributions and the market for charitable funds," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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