DESIRABILITY AND EFFECTS OF CAMPAIGN SPENDING LIMITS

This paper measures the influence of campaign spending on incumbent an d challenger votes in Canadian federal elections. The goal is to asses s the influence of spending ceilings on political competition and on v oter welfare. It is found that in the 1984 and 1988 Canadian federal e lections challengers could increase their voteshare by spending but th at incumbents could not. These results are used in a simulation to sho w that if ceilings were lowered, incumbent voteshare would rise. On th is evidence it is argued that spending ceilings may tilt the playing f ield in favour of incumbents and reduce political competition.