Dark Money and Voter Information

• In Event: Money and Special Interest Influence in Politics

Abstract

We analyze a model of informative campaign finance with and without required disclosure of campaign contributions. In the model, campaign advertisements probabilistically reveal hard information about candidate valence. Additionally, learning the source of money for campaign advertisements may indirectly reveal information about candidate ideology because voters have correct beliefs in equilibrium about the strategies of donors with different policy preferences. Removing required disclosure allows extreme donors to strategically reveal information about candidate valence while concealing some information about ideology. Effects on voter welfare are ambiguous because removing disclosure requirements denies ideological information to voters but also increases information about valence by increasing the total number of ads.

Authors

• Keith E. Schnakenberg, Washington University

• Collin T Schumock, Yale University

• Ian R. Turner, Yale University