Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T03:49:14.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do campaign contributions buy favorable policies? Evidence from the insurance industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2021

Alexander Fouirnaies  and
Anthony Fowler Open the ORCID record for Anthony Fowler [Opens in a new window]
Alexander Fouirnaies
Affiliation:
Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Anthony Fowler*
Affiliation:
Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To learn about the effects of corporate campaign contributions, we study the potential influence of the insurance industry in US state politics. The insurance industry is one of the biggest players in state politics, and we have collected new data on objective measures of the industry's performance in each state over time. We exploit within-state changes in campaign finance regulations which can significantly restrict the ability of corporate contributors to give money and potentially influence elected officials. Across a range of outcomes and campaign finance reforms, we find little evidence that the ability to make corporate campaign contributions benefits the insurance industry in a state. Some results suggest that the ability to make campaign contributions may benefit the insurance industry in states with elected insurance commissioners, but overall, campaign contributions appear to have a little distortionary effect even in a setting where we would most expect to find it.

Keywords

American politicscomparative politics: political institutionselections and campaignspolitical economystate and intergovernmental politics
Type
Original Article
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 18 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansolabehere, S, de Figueiredo, JM and Snyder, JM Jr (2003) Why is there so little money in U.S. Politics? Journal of Economic Perspectives 17, 105–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, S, Snyder, JM Jr and Ueda, M (2004) Did firms profit from soft money? Election Law Journal 3, 193–198.Google Scholar
Barber, MJ (2016) Donation motivations: testing theories of access and ideology. Political Research Quarterly 69, 148–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, MJ, Canes-Wrone, B and Thrower, S (2017) Ideologically sophisticated donors: which candidates do individual contributors finance? American Journal of Political Science 61, 271–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, CR and Fowler, A (2018) Congressional committees, legislative influence, and the hegemony of chairs. Journal of Public Economics 158, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamon, M and Kaplan, E (2013) The iceberg theory of campaign contributions: political threats and interest group behavior. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 5, 1–31.Google Scholar
Cordis, A and Milyo, J (2013) Do state campaign finance reforms reduce public corruption? Working paper <bit.ly/2h57FN2>..>Google Scholar
Fouirnaies, A and Hall, AB (2014) The financial incumbency advantage: causes and consequences. Journal of Politics 76, 711–724.Google Scholar
Fouirnaies, A and Hall, AB (2016) The exposure theory of access: why some firms seek more access to incumbents than others. Working paper <bit.ly/2rHBjex>..>Google Scholar
Fouirnaies, A and Hall, AB (2018) How do interest groups seek access to committees? American Journal of Political Science 62, 132–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, A, Garro, H and Spenkuch, JL (2020) Quid pro quo? Corporate Returns to Campaign Contributions. Journal of Politics 82, 844–858.Google Scholar
Gilens, M and Page, BI (2014) Testing theories of American politics: elites. Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on Politics 12, 564–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judd, G (2020) Access in legislatures: Who? And How Long? Working paper <bit.ly/2CRGItw>..>Google Scholar
Klumpp, T, Mialon, HM and Williams, MA (2016) The business of American democracy: citizens United. Independent Spending, and Elections. Journal of Law and Economics 59, 1–43.Google Scholar
Milyo, J 2016. Do state campaign finance reforms increase trust and confidence in state government? Working paper <bit.ly/2zMpRTh>..>Google Scholar
Powell, EN and Grimmer, J (2016) Money in exile: campaign contributions and committee access. Journal of Politics 78, 974–988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Primo, DM and Milyo, J (2006) Campaign finance laws and political efficacy: evidence from the states. Election Law Journal 5, 23–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richter, BK and Werner, T (2017) Campaign contributions from corporate executives in lieu of political action committees. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 33, 443–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, JR (1989) PAC contributions, Lobbying, and Representation. Journal of Politics 51, 713–729.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Fouirnaies and Fowler Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZJ0KSH
Link