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The impact of money on elections: evidence from open seat races in the United States House of Representatives, 1990-2004

Author

Listed:
  • Franklin Mixon, Jr.

    (Auburn University)

  • Steven Caudill

    (Auburn University)

  • Christopher Duquette

    (Center for Naval Analyses)

Abstract

A binary win/loss model is constructed and estimated on the results from 1990-2004 contests for open U.S. House seats. The results indicate that election outcomes are highly sensitive to the major-party candidates' campaign spending ratios, and increases in spending ratios are shown to translate into non-trivial increases the candidate''s probability of winning, a result that holds for both Republicans and Democrats. The payoff to high levels of spending explains why it''s so attractive for candidates to outspend their opponents by large margins.

Suggested Citation

  • Franklin Mixon, Jr. & Steven Caudill & Christopher Duquette, 2008. "The impact of money on elections: evidence from open seat races in the United States House of Representatives, 1990-2004," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(2), pages 1-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-08d70004
    as

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    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2008/Volume4/EB-08D70004A.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Pastine, Ivan & Pastine, Tuvana, 2012. "Incumbency advantage and political campaign spending limits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 20-32.
    2. Christopher Duquette & Franklin Mixon & Richard Cebula, 2013. "The Impact of Legislative Tenure and Seniority on General Election Success: Econometric Evidence from U.S. House Races," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 41(2), pages 161-172, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    public choice;

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents

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