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1,3001,2001,1001,0009008007006005004003002001000Number of municipalitiesno responseresponded to inquiryoffered incentiveMunicipalities’ Responses to Inquiries about Potential Incentives for Firm announcement before election announcement after election
  • For each data category, the following bars are shown: 
    • announcement before election
    • announcement after election
  • The data for the 3 categories are as follows: 
    • no response:
      • announcement before election: 1,252
      • announcement after election: 1,248
    • responded to inquiry:
      • announcement before election: 207
      • announcement after election: 205
    • offered incentive:
      • announcement before election: 128
      • announcement after election: 122

In the United States, firms often seek incentives from municipal governments to expand to those municipalities. A team of political scientists hypothesized that municipalities are much more likely to respond to firms and offer incentives if expansions can be announced in time to benefit local elected officials than if they can’t. The team contacted officials in thousands of municipalities, inquiring about incentives for a firm looking to expand and indicating that the firm would announce its expansion on a date either just before or just after the next election. 

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the team’s hypothesis?