Different chambers, different effect? The effect of campaign spending in the Chamber of deputies and the Senate of Chile (2005-2021)

Abstract

Campaign spending is one of the key elements for the different candidates competing for a legislative seat. Most countries establish different regulations to set clear limits on spending on electoral campaigns and give greater transparency to electoral contest. Here, we ask if campaign spending has the same effect in the Chamber of Deputies as in the Senate when it comes to explaining the success of the candidates. Using the Chilean case, we built our own database with information on 3.501 candidates for deputies and 491 candidates for senator between 2005 and 2021 for both chambers (N=3.992), using variables such as incumbency, sex, and the electoral system, to evaluate the performance of candidates. Using OLS and logistic models to measure the proposed variables, we found that the effect of spending and the condition of incumbency would better explain the performance of candidates for deputies than for the senate. Furthermore, spending has a greater effect for challengers’ candidates in both cambers than for incumbents.