Issue Advertising and Legislative Voting on the Affordable Care Act
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6340567 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Molly E Reynolds (The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, USA, corresponding author), Richard L Hall (University of Michigan), Richard Hall (0000-0001-7666-889X, University of Michigan) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 102-114 |
| Publication date | 2018-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Research Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1065912917724007 |
| OpenAlex | W2744612274 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 27 |
During the congressional fight over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), interest groups spent record sums on television issue advertising in targeted efforts to influence members of Congress, but did the money make any difference? We use the literatures on outside lobbying and legislative behavior to develop two hypotheses about issue advertising’s effects on members’ voting decisions. We test the hypotheses using population-weighted, station-level advertising data mapped into congressional districts. We find negligible evidence that issue advertising had a causal effect on either House committee or floor votes on the ACA, even applying forgiving statistical standards. Neither do we find evidence when we ignore the endogeneity bias that should inflate advertising’s effects, employ alternative measures and specifications, or limit the analysis to legislators for whom the probability of vote change was highest. The results justify skepticism that the millions of advertising dollars spent on the ACA had a net effect on members’ voting decisions. In conclusion, we consider several reasons why our hypotheses are not borne out and suggest several avenues for future research
Advertising · Business · Econometrics · Economics · Endogeneity · Legislature · Political science · Population · Skepticism · Sociology · Test (biology · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
What Americans know about politics and why it matters
The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion
Issue Politics in Congress
Setting the Agenda
Outside Lobbying
Legislative Issue Advertising in the 108th Congress Pluralism or Peril
Congress, The Electoral Connection
Congress
Issue Ads and the Health Reform Debate
Laws and Roll Calls in the U.S. Congress, 1891–1994
Targeted Issue Advertising and Legislative Strategy
Daring to Be Heard
Call Your Legislator
The Grass Roots Connection
Counteractive Lobbying
Identifying the Persuasive Effects of Presidential Advertising
Does Grassroots Lobbying Work
The 2010 Elections
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |