ea272282c8167c4b…

Preprint
ID: 5e12e22ccd361a001afed2513,244 bytesFirst seen Jun 24, 20261 collection

Fields

NameValue
abstractInferences about individual campaign contributors are limited by how the Federal Election Commission collects and reports data. Only transactions that exceed a cycle-to-date total of $200 are individually disclosed, so that contributions of many donors are unobserved. We contrast visible and "hidden" donors, i.e., small donors who are invisible due to censoring—and routinely ignored in existing research. We use the Sanders presidential campaign in 2016, whose unique campaign structure received money only through an intermediary/conduit committee. These are governed by stricter disclosure statutes, allowing us to study donors who are normally hidden. For Sanders, there were seven hidden donors for every visible donor, and altogether, hidden donors were responsible for 33.8% of Sanders' campaign funds. We show that hidden donors start giving relatively later, with contributions concentrated around early primaries. We suggest that as presidential campaign strategies change towards wooing smaller donors, more research on what motivates them is necessary.
abstractViews2008
approvedDate2020-01-06T15:40:57.027Z
assetFileNamehidden_donors_revised.pdf
assetFileSizeBytes17739163
assetMimeTypeapplication/pdf
assetUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e12e22ccd361a001afed251/original/hidden-donors-the-censoring-problem-in-u-s-federal-campaign-finance-data.pdf
authorIds["name:r. michael alvarez","name:jonathan n. katz","name:seo-young silvia kim"]
categoryIds["5ce663395846762193c9c422"]
citations0
commentsCount0
communityIdAPSA
competingInterestsDeclarationnull
contentDownloads593
contentTypeWorking Paper
contentTypeId5ce663395846762193c9c430
doi10.33774/apsa-2020-sdjkp
doiUrlhttps://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2020-sdjkp
engageUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/coe/article-details/5e12e22ccd361a001afed251
eventIdnull
funders[]
gainedEthicsApprovalnull
hasCompetingInterestsnull
isLatestVersiontrue
keywords["campaign finance","small donors","2016 election","data censoring","presidential campaigns"]
licenseId5cc9d9bf7d4e0000ac04ef27
publishedDate2020-01-06T15:40:57.039Z
statusPUBLISHED
statusDate2020-01-06T15:40:57.039Z
subjectId5e68cb1bd1f19d49ce3ac752
submittedDate2020-01-06T08:06:17.139Z
supplementaryFiles[{"description":"Online Appendices for Hidden Donors: The Censoring Problem in U.S. Federal Campaign Finance Data","fileName":"hidden_donors_si.pdf","fileSizeBytes":237521,"mimeType":"application/pdf","title":"Online Appendices","url":"https://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e12e9a1afc3ff0019673528/original/online-appendices.pdf"}]
thumbnailUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e12e22ccd361a001afed251/mediumThumb/hidden-donors-the-censoring-problem-in-u-s-federal-campaign-finance-data.jpg
titleHidden Donors: The Censoring Problem in U.S. Federal Campaign Finance Data
version1
vor{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1089/elj.2019.0593","vorDoi":"10.1089/elj.2019.0593"}
webLinks[]

Canonical JSON

{
  "id": "5e12e22ccd361a001afed251",
  "type": "Preprint",
  "data": {
    "abstract": "Inferences about individual campaign contributors are limited by how the Federal Election Commission collects and reports data. Only transactions that exceed a cycle-to-date total of $200 are individually disclosed, so that contributions of many donors are unobserved. We contrast visible and \"hidden\" donors, i.e., small donors who are invisible due to censoring—and routinely ignored in existing research. We use the Sanders presidential campaign in 2016, whose unique campaign structure received money only through an intermediary/conduit committee. These are governed by stricter disclosure statutes, allowing us to study donors who are normally hidden. For Sanders, there were seven hidden donors for every visible donor, and altogether, hidden donors were responsible for 33.8% of Sanders' campaign funds. We show that hidden donors start giving relatively later, with contributions concentrated around early primaries. We suggest that as presidential campaign strategies change towards wooing smaller donors, more research on what motivates them is necessary.",
    "abstractViews": 2008,
    "approvedDate": "2020-01-06T15:40:57.027Z",
    "assetFileName": "hidden_donors_revised.pdf",
    "assetFileSizeBytes": 17739163,
    "assetMimeType": "application/pdf",
    "assetUrl": "https://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e12e22ccd361a001afed251/original/hidden-donors-the-censoring-problem-in-u-s-federal-campaign-finance-data.pdf",
    "authorIds": [
      "name:r. michael alvarez",
      "name:jonathan n. katz",
      "name:seo-young silvia kim"
    ],
    "categoryIds": [
      "5ce663395846762193c9c422"
    ],
    "citations": 0,
    "commentsCount": 0,
    "communityId": "APSA",
    "competingInterestsDeclaration": null,
    "contentDownloads": 593,
    "contentType": "Working Paper",
    "contentTypeId": "5ce663395846762193c9c430",
    "doi": "10.33774/apsa-2020-sdjkp",
    "doiUrl": "https://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2020-sdjkp",
    "engageUrl": "https://www.cambridge.org/engage/coe/article-details/5e12e22ccd361a001afed251",
    "eventId": null,
    "funders": [],
    "gainedEthicsApproval": null,
    "hasCompetingInterests": null,
    "isLatestVersion": true,
    "keywords": [
      "campaign finance",
      "small donors",
      "2016 election",
      "data censoring",
      "presidential campaigns"
    ],
    "licenseId": "5cc9d9bf7d4e0000ac04ef27",
    "publishedDate": "2020-01-06T15:40:57.039Z",
    "status": "PUBLISHED",
    "statusDate": "2020-01-06T15:40:57.039Z",
    "subjectId": "5e68cb1bd1f19d49ce3ac752",
    "submittedDate": "2020-01-06T08:06:17.139Z",
    "supplementaryFiles": [
      {
        "description": "Online Appendices for Hidden Donors: The Censoring Problem in U.S. Federal Campaign Finance Data",
        "fileName": "hidden_donors_si.pdf",
        "fileSizeBytes": 237521,
        "mimeType": "application/pdf",
        "title": "Online Appendices",
        "url": "https://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e12e9a1afc3ff0019673528/original/online-appendices.pdf"
      }
    ],
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e12e22ccd361a001afed251/mediumThumb/hidden-donors-the-censoring-problem-in-u-s-federal-campaign-finance-data.jpg",
    "title": "Hidden Donors: The Censoring Problem in U.S. Federal Campaign Finance Data",
    "version": "1",
    "vor": {
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1089/elj.2019.0593",
      "vorDoi": "10.1089/elj.2019.0593"
    },
    "webLinks": []
  }
}

Appears in 1 collection

cambridge-up/open-engage1 version · Jun 24, 2026

Full hash:ea272282c8167c4b2309d7b8d11b876251b5849871a8bde9b470b3def5cf9fb1