Firm Donations and Political Rhetoric: Evidence from a National Ban

Julia Cagé (), Caroline Le Pennec and Elisa Mougin
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Julia Cagé: ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research
Caroline Le Pennec: HEC Montréal - HEC Montréal
Elisa Mougin: ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon, CERGIC - Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon, LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po

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Abstract: We study France's 1995 ban on firm donations to politicians. We use a difference-in-differences approach and a novel dataset combining the campaign manifestos issued by candidates running in French parliamentary elections with data on their campaign contributions. We show that banning firm donations discourages candidates from advertising their local presence during the campaign, as well as economic issues. The ban also leads candidates from nonmainstream parties to use more extreme language. This suggests that private donors shape politicians' topics of interest, and that campaign finance reforms may affect the information made available to voters through their impact on candidates' rhetoric.

Keywords: Campaign manifestos; Political rhetoric; Text analysis; Corporate donations; Campaign finance; Elections (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-08-01
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-05446535v1
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Published in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2024, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 16 (3), pp.217-256. ⟨10.1257/pol.20220218⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-05446535

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20220218

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