Working Paper: NBER ID: w24374
Authors: Daniel M. Hungerman; Kevin Rinz; Tim Weninger; Chungeun Yoon
Abstract: We combine a new dataset of weekly Catholic church donations with a new dataset of presidential-election campaign stops to explore the impact of stops on donations. We find that stops increase donations, with a campaign stop generating 2 percent more donations in the following week. Our results suggest that this effect is of short duration. Further, it does not appear to vary based on the political language used by the parish in its own church bulletins. However, the effect does appear to vary based on the religiosity of the candidates themselves, with Catholic candidates generating the largest increases.
Keywords: political campaigns; church contributions; donations; candidates; religiosity
JEL Codes: D72; H41; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| presidential campaign stops (D79) | church donations (Z12) |
| church donations (Z12) | transient effect (C22) |