Olson (1965) has argued that one way large groups overcome the free-rider problem is through by-product lobbying. The by-product firm sells a private good to potential members of the interest group and finances lobbying with its profits. It has been argued that by-product lobbying firms cannot survive competition with for-profit firms, since this would compete away monopoly rents, leaving the f...

We study interest groups’ decisions about the policy-making institution in which to press for policy change. Most research about lobbying activities focuses within a single institution (the legislature, the bureaucracy), but groups and lobbyists generally can choose from among multiple venues. Further, some important questions about organized interests and the policy process require studying lo...

One of the central concerns about American policy-making institutions is the degree to which political outcomes can be influenced by interested parties. While the literature on interest group strategies in particular institutions– legislative, administrative, and legal–is extensive, there is very little scholarship which examines how the interdependencies between institutions affects the strate...

We study three corporate non-market strategies designed to in‡uence the lobbying behavior of other special interest groups concerning environmental and/or health and safety issues: 1) “astroturf,” in which the ...rm covertly subsidizes a group with similar views to lobby when it normally would not, 2) the “bearhug,” in which the ...rm overtly subsidizes the lobbying activities of another intere...

In popular discussion much has been made recently of the susceptibility of government policies to lobbying by foreigners. The general presumption has also been that such interactions have a deleterious effect on the home economy. However, it can be argued that, in a trade policy context, bending policy in a direction that would suit foreigners may not in fact be harmful: If the policy outcome a...

Abstract We study a game with two candidates and interest groups. The groups offer kinds of costly contributions to achieve political influence: (a) pre-election campaign their favourite that increase probability winning the election (b) post-election lobbying candidate affect implemented policy. are first act by strategically choosing prices they will charge if elected. characterise equilibriu...

This paper presents preliminary results on visualizing business and labor lobbying before the U.S. Congress in 1877–1933 based on metadata of witnesses at Congressional committees. It highlights the dominant presence of business representatives even in this most accessible category of lobbying activity.