Money in Politics

Julia Cagé, Caroline Le Pennec, and Elisa Mougin discuss their recent research on France’s 1995 ban on corporate contributions to political campaigns. The ban pushed candidates to de-emphasize local politics in favor of national issues and, in many cases, adopt more extreme rhetoric.

In new research, Alexander Furnas, Timothy LaPira, and Clare Brock find that most politically active organizations engage in either campaign contributions or lobbying, but rarely both.The findings have implications for regulation and future academic research.

The proposed merger of local broadcast television station owners Nexstar and Tegna will create a behemoth that threatens to raise consumer prices for multi-video programming subscriptions, increase advertising rates for local businesses, and reduce viewers’ exposure to diverse viewpoints. The government can and should block the merger but politics threatens to usurp law and economics, writes Diana L. Moss.

Hamza Azhar Salam discusses the recent history of real estate moguls in Pakistan buying up media outlets to influence government investigations against them and their properties and win access to powerful government offices. The moguls’ capture of the media has led to capture of the state.

In new research, Ramona Dagostino and Anya Nakhmurina discuss how political misalignment between state governors and city leadership can affect how cities access financing, particularly in municipal bond pricing and crisis prevention investment.

The following is an excerpt from Natasha Piano's new book, Democratic Elitism: The Founding Myth of American Political Science, now out at Harvard University...

Benjamin Egerod explores the information gap that prevents a majority of firms from lobbying. He argues that the lack of lobbying participation from a majority of firms creates a lopsided playing field that gives more power to those that do.

The following is an excerpt from Brody Mullins and Luke Mullins’s book,“The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government,” now available from Simon and Schuster.

From the Kennedy family to Chile's Matte family, powerful and wealthy families often seek political office. New research by Patricio Duran, Marcelo Ortiz, and Michael Carney seek to understand what those politically active families have in common and discuss potential motivations.

Eleanor Fox evaluates "The Political Economy of the Decline of Antitrust Enforcement in the United States" by Professors Lancieri, Posner, and Zingales, praising its revelations on the depth of corporate capture while challenging its narrative of judicial and regulatory dissembling on promises to uphold antitrust.