Is the e/ect of campaign spending higher in poorer electoral districts? Dalson Britto Figueiredo Filho (dalsonbritto@yahoo.com.br) Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) September 6, 2014 Abstract This paper estimates the moderator impact of poverty on the e/ect of campaign spending on electoral outcomes. Methodologically, the research design combines both descriptive and multivariate statistics to analyze data from Electoral Superior Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) regard- ing 2010 House of Representatives Brazilian elections.The results suggest that: (1) an extra additional 1% in spending produces an average increase of 0,7% on votes; (2) non-elected candidates ( = .606) benet more for spending than elected ones ( = .276) and (3) the e/ect of campaign spending on electoral outcomes depends upon district income levels and follows a quadratic function (r 2 quadratic = .510). Keywords: campaign spending; electoral outcomes; poverty levels. 1 Introduction 1 Imagine the following situations: (1) an election where candidates provide both food and beverages (including alcoholic) for voters just before they cast their votes; (2) a public service system where jobs are assigned by political criteria and (3) an incumbent candidate is charged of receiving campaign contributions in exchange for making favors for state contractors. These cases are not about Latin American countries that are well known by lack of law enforcement. These cases are not about African nations that are worldwide acknowledged by high levels of corruption. These cases represent both the U.S. (cases 1 and 2) and Canada (case 3) before regulate their campaign nance 2 . 1 This paper is based on my PhD thesis submitted to Political Science Department (DCP) at Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and it was developed during my visit to The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Bloomington, Indiana. I am thankful for all support received for both institutions. Replication data is available at: 2 According to Smith (2001), in 1757, George Washington spent £39 to buy food and rum for his voters. 1