{"title":"Recovering voice through out-of-district donations","authors":"Sarah Waldfogel","doi":"10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105378","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A growing share of Americans live in electorally lopsided congressional districts, potentially depressing their political participation. Unlike with voting, there are no place-based restrictions on giving, raising the question of whether individuals disengaged by lopsided home districts find voice through greater non-local giving. I explore this using the post-2010 redistricting, which reassigned individuals to more, or less, competitive districts. When an individual’s district becomes exogenously less competitive, she donates more out of district to competitive races. Givers regard non-local giving as a substitute for local political participation, increasing their out-of-district gifts by <span><math><mrow><mi>$</mi><mn>0</mn><mo>.</mo><mn>40</mn></mrow></math></span>, and reducing their within-district gifts by <span><math><mrow><mi>$</mi><mn>0</mn><mo>.</mo><mn>75</mn></mrow></math></span>, for every one p.p. increase in their home district’s lopsidedness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48436,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Economics","volume":"248 ","pages":"Article 105378"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Public Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272725000763","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
A growing share of Americans live in electorally lopsided congressional districts, potentially depressing their political participation. Unlike with voting, there are no place-based restrictions on giving, raising the question of whether individuals disengaged by lopsided home districts find voice through greater non-local giving. I explore this using the post-2010 redistricting, which reassigned individuals to more, or less, competitive districts. When an individual’s district becomes exogenously less competitive, she donates more out of district to competitive races. Givers regard non-local giving as a substitute for local political participation, increasing their out-of-district gifts by , and reducing their within-district gifts by , for every one p.p. increase in their home district’s lopsidedness.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Public Economics aims to promote original scientific research in the field of public economics, focusing on the utilization of contemporary economic theory and quantitative analysis methodologies. It serves as a platform for the international scholarly community to engage in discussions on public policy matters.