Mayoral elections in Brazil: An Investigation Into Campaign Finances

I study how incumbency affects future campaign funding in mayoral elections in Brazil. Utilizing a regression discontinuity design to identify the effect(s), I find that incumbency is associated with an increase in campaign donations of 20 percent. The effect is driven by higher self-funding among incumbents. They donate, on average, 294 percent more to their campaigns compared to the challengers. They also receive, on average, 78 percent less in party donations. Individual donations do not systematically differ between incumbents and challengers