The Lacuna Project

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Exhibit 688

Why Is There So Little Money in U.S. Politics?

Exhibit 688 ยท Working paper (published JEP 2003)

Why Is There So Little Money in U.S. Politics?

we argue that campaign contributions are not a form of policy-buying, but are rather a form of political participation and consumption.

Concerns campaign contributions, not lobbying expenditures. Reports that individuals, not special interests, are the main source of contributions and that, controlling for unobserved effects, there is little relationship between money and votes. Quote is from the working-paper abstract.

Source
Ansolabehere, de Figueiredo and Snyder (NBER Working Paper 9409; Journal of Economic Perspectives 17(1):105-130)
Date
2003
Quoted from
Abstract (NBER WP 9409)
Grade
Peer-reviewed
Document
https://www.nber.org/papers/w9409
Accessed
2026-11-10
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding POL-1.13
Peer-reviewed Ansolabehere, de Figueiredo and Snyder conclude that campaign contributions are a form of political participation and consumption, and that little relationship exists between contributions and votes once unobserved effects are controlled. The paper covers contributions and does not measure lobbying expenditures.