Table 5. Mechanism: Campaign Contribution Caps
The table presents treatment effect estimates of legalizing unlimited direct campaign contributions and capped direct campaign contributions on total contributions (Models 1–2) and authorized ROE (Models 3–4). Unlimited is an indicator variable equal to one if the state allows unlimited corporate contributions to either candidates or political parties. Cap is an indicator variable equal to one if the state caps contributions to both candidates and political parties. POST is an indicator variable equal to one in the years following the PUHCA’s 2005 repeal. All models include state (ST), year, and holding company fixed effects. Controls include senate, house, PUC and governor party control, citizen and institution ideology, CAPM beta, state-level unemployment rates, change in per capita income, and share of manufacturing and utility jobs. I further control for relevant election years in Models 1–2. Standard errors are clustered by state. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1.
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