Hi All!
Reminder: Our speaker this Wednesday, April 9th, will be Professor Eleanor Neff Powell
from Yale University who will be presenting a talk entitled "Money in Exile: Campaign
Contributions and Committee Access" (see abstract and paper below). As per usual,
the talk will be held in CGIS K354 at 12 noon and lunch will be served.
I hope to see you all there!
Tess
Abstract:
Corporations and political action committees (PACs) flood congressional elections with
money. Understanding why they contribute is essential for determining how money influences
policy in Congress. To test theories of contributors’ motivations we exploit committee
exile—the involuntary removal of committee members after a party loses a sizable number of
seats, and the losses are unevenly distributed across committees. We use exile to show
that business interests seek short-term access to influential leg- islators. Sectors
regulated by the committee decrease contributions after a legislator is exiled, instead
PACs from regulated sectors direct their contributions to new com- mittee members from the
opposite party. Partisan interests, in contrast, attempt to influence electoral
outcomes—boosting contributions to exiled members. Together, we provide evidence that
corporations and business PACs use donations to acquire immediate access and
favor—suggesting they at least anticipate that the donations will influence policy.