Campaign Finance and Political Representation

小行星9631640 在之前的研究中，这些调查人员开始对众议院选举中竞选支出的生产力进行实证调查。 这项工作的一些早期结果表明，美国众议院现任者和挑战者面临的“选票生产函数”非常相似，在统计上没有区别。 这一发现与传统观点形成了鲜明对比，传统观点认为现任支出的生产力远远低于挑战者。 结果表明，竞选资金研究的核心问题不仅仅是钱如何转化为选票，而是为什么有些候选人能够筹集到比其他人多得多的资金。 在目前的调查中，研究人员沿着沿着两条轨道进行。 首先，他们验证了他们对现任美国众议院选举中竞选支出影响的初步调查。 为了验证这些估计，他们将他们的分析扩展到美国参议院竞选和美国众议院竞选。 他们还通过使用LEXIS/NEXIS改进其测量技术，从而能够制作关于谁竞选国会议员的最完整和准确的数据集。 其次，他们调查了不同类型的候选人，不同的选举环境（如国会选区，州和媒体市场）以及政治生涯中竞选支出的生产力如何变化。 政治知识和民意研究经常强调，竞选活动的有效性在很大程度上取决于背景。 除了少数例外，对竞选资金的研究忽略了这些背景因素，尽管有很多猜测。 在具体的假设中，支出的边际产品被认为是较低的（1）如果候选人已经众所周知，（2）如果竞选是在一个昂贵的媒体市场进行，（3）如果挑战者是第二次竞选，（4）如果挑战者是一个政治新手，（5）如果选民主要是由候选人的反对党的选票组成。 使用工具变量的方法在他们的早期工作中，他们测试是否在这些方式的任何不同的生产力的竞选支出的钱。 虽然统计数据相对简单，但还进行了额外的数据收集。 这个项目产生了三个非常有用的新数据集供其他学者使用：一个关于国会候选人的个人和专业背景;一个关于商业和其他利益集团的地点、资源和活动;一个跟踪过去二十年来重要的联邦立法的历史。 ***

9631640 Snyder In prior research these investigators began an empirical investigation of the productivity of campaign spending in House elections. Some early results from this work indicate that the "vote production functions" facing U.S. House incumbents and challengers are remarkably similar, and are not statistically distinct. This finding contrasts sharply with the conventional wisdom, which holds that incumbent spending is far less productive than that of challengers. The results suggest that the central issue in the study of campaign finance is not simply how money translates into votes but why some candidates are able to raise vastly more than others. In the current investigation the researchers proceed along two tracks. First, they validate their initial investigation of the effects of campaign expenditures in incumbent-contested U.S. House elections. To validate these estimates they extend their analysis to U.S. Senate races and to open seat U.S. House races. They also improve their measurement techniques through the use of LEXIS/NEXIS and are thus allowed to make the most complete and accurate data set of who runs for Congress. Second, they investigate how the productivity of campaign spending varies across different kinds of candidates, across electoral settings (such as congressional district, state, and media market), and over the course of political careers. Political lore and public opinion research frequently emphasizes that the effectiveness of a campaign depends very much on the context. With only a few exceptions, research on campaign finance has ignored these contextual factors, though there has bee much speculation. Among the specific hypotheses, the marginal product of spending is thought to be lower (1) if the candidate is already well-known, (2) if the campaign is conducted in an expensive media market, (3) if the challenger is running for the second time, (4) if the challenger is a political novice, and (5) if the electorate is composed largely of vote rs of the opposite party of the candidate. Using the instrumental variables approach presented in their earlier work, they test whether the productivity of campaign spending money varies in any of these ways. While the statistics are relatively straightforward, additional data collection is undertaken. This project produces three highly useful new data sets for use by other scholars: one on the personal and professional backgrounds of congressional candidates; one on the locations, resources, and activities of business and other interest groups; and, one tracking the histories of important federal legislation of the last two decades. ***