members were encouraged to buy an array of (...) officially-sanctioned products ranging from life insurance sold through the Empire Mutual Life Insurance Company, robe dry-cleaning services, and even specially wrapped candies with the klan insignia on itThat's just one of the paper's interesting bits. More importantly, they find that local Klan strength does not predict the vote share of the Republican party (whom the Klan supported) or the number of lynchings.
The paper's a bit short on speculation possibly explaining these findings. As for lynchings, my guess is that at least in rural areas you do not need a formal organization to start one because you know where the potential participants live.
In his blog post about the paper, Levitt writes that he "wouldn’t be surprised if 10,000 hours were invested in it". That's hyperbole, of course, but when you see the data appendix, you know where he's coming from.
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