Samenvatting

According to our analysis of the campaign expenses declared by the Flemish candidates for the 2003 federal and the 2004 regional elections candidates of the three traditional parties spend, on average, about 70 à 80% of what they are allowed to. The impact of the spending limit is much smaller for the other parties, the candidates of which spend only about 50% of what they are allowed to. Incumbents and candidates who are also mayor in a municipality tend to spend more. The background characteristics of the candidates have almost no effect on the expenditures. There is only a small effect of gender, in the sense that women candidates spend less. On average, one third of the individual campaign expenditures is financed by the individual candidates, and two thirds by the party. However, in the liberal party the contribution of the party is substantially lower (35 à 40% on average), while it is higher (80% on average) in the socialist party as well as for female candidates