Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP18337
Authors: Johannes Boken; Mirko Draca; Nicola Mastrorocco; Arianna Ornaghi
Abstract: Social media has changed the structure of mass communication. In this paper we explore its role in influencing political donations. Using a daily dataset of campaign contributions and Twitter activity for US Members of Congress 2019-2020, we find that attention on Twitter (as measured by likes) is positively correlated with the amount of daily small donations received. However, this is not true for everybody: the impact on campaign donations is highly skewed, indicating very concentrated returns to attention that are in line with a ‘winner-takes-all’ market. Our results are confirmed in a geography-based causal design linking member’s donations across states.
Keywords: Twitter; Campaign Contributions; Social Media
JEL Codes: D72; P00
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| cable news coverage (L96) | campaign donations (MoCs) (D72) |
| Twitter attention (likes) (Y10) | cable news coverage (L96) |
| time (2 days after likes) (Y60) | campaign donations (MoCs) (D72) |
| likes below 80th percentile (Y10) | campaign donations (MoCs) (D72) |
| Twitter attention (likes) (Y10) | campaign donations (MoCs) (D72) |
| going viral (top 10 likes) (Y60) | campaign donations (MoCs) (D72) |