Ideological Donors, Contribution Limits, and the Polarization of American Legislatures
@article{Barber2016IdeologicalDC, title={Ideological Donors, Contribution Limits, and the Polarization of American Legislatures}, author={Michael J. Barber}, journal={The Journal of Politics}, year={2016}, volume={78}, pages={296 - 310} }
This article demonstrates that limits on campaign contributions—which alter a candidate’s ability to raise money from certain types of donors—affect the ideologies of legislators in office. Using an original data set of campaign contribution limits in some US states over the last 20 years, I exploit variation across and within states over time to show that higher individual contributions lead to the selection of more polarized legislators, while higher limits on contributions from political…
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