Campaign contributions

    Papers & Opinions

    Electoral politics | Empirics | Political institutions

    Mega-Donors and Representation of the Wealthy in the Wake of Citizens United

    Paper

    Posted on 25 April 2024

    By Guosong Xu

    We document that in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which increased in the ability of the wealthy to finance political campaigns, the share of total electoral...
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    Financial markets | Media

    Friends in Low Places: The Impact of Political Scandals on Connected Firms’ Stock Prices

    Paper

    Posted on 24 October 2022

    By Susanne Preuss

    Having “friends in high places” can bring many benefits. But what happens if these “friends” are involved in shady business dealings, use taxpayer funds to finance lavish offices or vacations,...
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    Banking | Special interest politics | Theory

    Bank Influence at a Discount

    Paper

    Posted on 8 November 2021

    By Stylianos Papageorgiou

    In a general equilibrium framework, we study the cost incurred by banks to ''buy" influence on capital regulation via campaign contributions. Our central result is that banks buy influence at...
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    Corporate finance

    Direct Democracy, Corporate Political Strategy, and Firm Value

    Paper

    Posted on 1 October 2021

    By Philip Valta

    We analyze a novel data set of corporate contributions to ballot initiatives and referendums at the U.S. state level. Firms make significant contributions to ballot measures in favor of or...
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    Corporate finance | Empirics

    Political Attitudes, Partisanship, and Merger Activity

    Paper

    Posted on 2 September 2021

    By Ran Duchin

    We demonstrate that similarity in employees’ political attitudes plays an important role in mergers and acquisitions. Using detailed data on employees’ campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans, we find that...
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