LUKE GODWIN-JONES

705 E Colorado Ave

Urbana, IL 61801
godwinj1@illinois.edu
(804) 307-5747

EDUCATION
PhD, Economics
University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
Master of Science, Economics

Expected May 2015

May 2009

Bachelor of Science, Math and Economics

College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA

May 2008

FIELDS OF INTEREST
Public Economics, Political Economics, Applied Microeconomics

JOB MARKET PAPER

Average Joe Versus Super PACs: Does the Source of Campaign Contributions Matter?
Abstract: The amount of money involved in politics is a frequent topic of discussion, yet the debate typically
centers on the amount of campaign contributions and rarely on the source of contributions. I show that
the source of a campaign contribution is an important factor in determining the effect the contribution has.
Specifically I find that individual contributions have a greater impact on election results than corporate
contributions. I show that the reason for this difference is that in addition to direct spending effects,
individual contributions are also a reflection of a candidates quality and thus contain an indirect quality
effect. I then use 3SLS to obtain an estimate of all the effects involved with campaign contributions. The
results present a better understanding of the true effects of money in an election.

WORKING PAPERS
Fighting for Control: Optimal Party Spending Across Multiple Elections

Bargaining in Congress: Whats Causing all the Gridlock?

TEACHING
Econ
Econ
Econ
Econ
Econ

102,
103,
202,
203,
302,

Principles of Microeconomics
Principles of Macroeconomics
Economic Statistics 1
Economics Statistics 2
Intermediate Microeconomics

Fall 2011*, Spring 2009*, 2011*

Fall 2008, 2010*
Fall 2012, 2013*, 2014, Spring 2013*, 2014*
Fall 2009, Spring 2010
Spring 2012

L. Godwin-Jones
p. 2

Econ 511, Public Goods Theory

Fall 2010

*Qualified for List of Teachers Rated as Excellent by Their Students.

Responsible for developing and teaching material for multiple discussion sections each week

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Research Assistant for Ben Marx

2014

Intern for Senator Tim Kaine

2014

Intern for State Senator Mike Frerichs

2013

Teaching Assistant

2008 - Present

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
Joe Petry for Mayor

2014-2015

Carol Ammons for State Representative

2014

Ann Callis for Congress

2014

COMPUTING SKILLS
Experienced in R, Stata, SAS, GIS, Latex, Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, MS Office

REFERENCES
Mattias Polborn
Dept of Economics
University of Illinois
Email: polborn@illinois.edu

Hyun-Seung Hong
Dept of Economics
University of Illinois
Email: hyunhong@illinois.edu

Joe Petry
Dept of Economics
University of Illinois
Email: jpetry@illinois.edu

Colleen Schultz
Dept of Economics
University of Illinois
Email: colleen@illinois.edu