Firm Donations and Political Rhetoric: Evidence from a National Ban
利用法国1995年禁止企业向政治家捐款的政策，研究发现该禁令减少了候选人在竞选宣言中宣传本地存在和经济议题的内容，并导致非主流政党候选人使用更极端的语言，表明私人捐赠者影响政治家议题选择，竞选融资改革通过影响候选人修辞改变选民可获得的信息。
We study France’s 1995 ban on firm donations to politicians. We use a difference-in-differences approach and a novel dataset combining the campaign manifestos issued by candidates running in French parliamentary elections with data on their campaign contributions. We show that banning firm donations discourages candidates from advertising their local presence during the campaign, as well as economic issues. The ban also leads candidates from nonmainstream parties to use more extreme language. This suggests that private donors shape politicians’ topics of interest, and that campaign finance reforms may affect the information made available to voters through their impact on candidates’ rhetoric.