Data and Code for: Firm donations and political rhetoric

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Julia Cagé, Sciences Po and CEPR; Caroline Le Pennec, HEC Montréal; Elisa Mougin, Sciences Po and LIEPP

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
1.data			02/20/2023 10:28:AM
2.dofiles			06/26/2023 07:24:AM
3.sources			02/20/2023 10:28:AM
4.figures_tables			02/20/2023 10:28:AM
Readme.docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	71.7 KB	06/28/2023 07:19:AM
Readme.pdf	application/pdf	353.3 KB	06/28/2023 07:11:AM

Project Citation:

Cagé, Julia, Le Pennec, Caroline, and Mougin, Elisa. Data and Code for: Firm donations and political rhetoric. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-06-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/E184946V1

Project Description

Summary: Do campaign finance regulations influence politicians? We study the effects of a French ban on political donations from firms passed in 1995. We use a difference-in-differences approach and a novel dataset combining the campaign manifestos issued by every candidate running for a seat in the French parliament with detailed data on their campaign contributions. The ban on firm donations could affect political rhetoric, either through a resource effect or through a change in the pool of potential donors. We show that banning firm donations discourages candidates from advertising their local presence, as well as economic issues, during the campaign. The ban also leads candidates from non-mainstream parties to use more polarized language. These findings suggest that politicians strategically adjust their campaign communication to secure contributions from specific sources, and that campaign finance reforms may affect the information made available to voters through their impact on candidates' rhetoric.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Elections; campaign contributions; text as data

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      H70 State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations: General
      P48 Other Economic Systems: Political Economy; Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

Geographic Coverage: France

Time Period(s): 1967 – 1997

Collection Date(s): 2018 – 2020

Universe: Candidates to the French parlimentary elections in 1993 and 1997;
Firms that made contributions to French parliamentary candidates in 1993

Data Type(s): census/enumeration data; observational data; text

Collection Notes: the data stems from the digitization of archival paper records

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-06-18]

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