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THE DETERMINANTS OF CAMPAIGN SPENDING: THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT JACKPOT
Author(s) -
Palda Filip
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.1992.tb01285.x
Subject(s) - economics , liberian dollar , governor , government (linguistics) , per capita , government spending , politics , index (typography) , public economics , monetary economics , political science , law , finance , market economy , sociology , linguistics , population , philosophy , physics , demography , world wide web , computer science , welfare , thermodynamics
To raise money for their campaigns, political candidates auction a part of government wealth (the jackpot) to contributors. The larger the jackpot, the more candidates spend. Data on the gubernatorial races of 1978 and 1986 indicate that (1) for every dollar increase in the per capita jackpot, campaign spending rises by 0.0004 cents per voter, (2) balanced budget laws hinder the candidate's ability to raise money, (3) in states that give the governor more power over the budget (measured by a “Schlesinger” index) candidates raise more. The paper emphasizes that candidates willingly limit their spending to avoid indebtedness to contributors.