Yesterday's The Wall Street Journal makes the following mention of a new report on the monetary payoff of lobbying and funding campaigns:
In a report to be released Tuesday by the
Manhattan Institute, economist (and former senior Clinton Administration
official) Rob Shapiro and co-author Douglas Dowson sort through the academic
literature and find that "corporate political efforts generally have
positive effects on a firm's market value and its shareholder returns."
...
Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Dowson looked at studies covering
corporate political spending from 1974 to 2011, when most corporate political
spending flowed through political action committees. Not surprisingly, the
heaviest political spending was done by companies in industries that were
heavily regulated, highly concentrated or when they received much of their
revenue from government.
--The Wall Street Journal. June 18, 2012.
"Political Spending Pays." A12.
It will be interesting to see where food & ag corporations fall in this study, as they are certainly heavily regulated.
Also, let us not neglect that fact that it is often the politician who corrupts the corporation. If I may be cynical, economists sometimes view regulations as a threat to corporations, where politicians will less the regulations or at least not strengthen them, so long as they donate money to the politician's campaigns. If this sounds far-fetched, consider the following quotes.
I’ve had
conversations with Democrat givers out here in the Bay area, and I’ll tell you,
you won’t believe the requests their getting [that is, requests of lobbyists
from politicians]. The opening ante is a
million dollars…that’s sort of the baseline.
This is unprecedented. And, in
fact, one thing that John [McCain] and I experienced was that sometimes the
corporations that didn’t like this system would come to us and say, “You know,
it’s not legalized bribery, it’s legalized extortion.” Because it’s not like the company CEO calls
up and says, “Gee, I’d love to give you some money.” It’s usually the other way around. The politician or their agent who’s got the
superpac: they’re the ones calling up and asking for the money…
—Russ
Feingold. “Take the Money and Run for
Office.” This American Life. National
Public Radio. April 1, 2012.
Jacob: Alex, you’ve been doing these pieces on
lobbying for a while now, and what’s been illuminating to me is how much the
Congress people themselves need these fundraisers. They need this constant flow of money to get
reelected...
Alex: Yeh, you know a lot of people think of all
these lobbyists, that they’re bum-rushing Congress, throwing money at them and
trying to corrupt them with their money, but [lobbyist] Jimmy Williams says
it’s the other way around: Congress
people were constantly pestering him.
They were constantly calling, and a lot of time it was Congressmen whose
votes he didn’t even need.
—Planet
Money podcast. “A Former Lobbyist
Tells All.” January 27, 2012.
