Title

House Members as Residual Claimants: Campaign Spending in the 1980s

Abstract

Through 1992, federal election campaign laws and House rules permit U.S. Representatives holding office on 8 January 1980, to personally claim unspent campaign contributions when they retire, while other House members have to forfeit such sums. These rules provide differential incentives to pre-1980 members to more aggressively seek and yet refrain from spending political contributions than other House members. Regression estimates suggest that the privilege was worth almost $71,700 to the typical pre-1980 House member during the 1987–88 election cycle.

Department(s)

Economics

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01047923

Keywords

public finance, regression estimate, election campaign, election cycle, campaign contribution

Publication Date

1994

Journal Title

Public Choice

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