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Firm heterogeneity and lobby participation

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Author Info
Bombardini, Matilde

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Abstract

The structure of protection across sectors has been interpreted as the result of competition among lobbies to influence politicians, but lobbies have been treated as unitary decision makers and little attention has been devoted to the importance of individual firms in this process. This paper builds a model where individual firms determine the amount of resources to allocate to political contributions and shows that, in the presence of a fixed cost of channeling political contributions, it is efficient for a lobby to be formed by the largest firms in a sector. Therefore the size distribution of firms plays an important role: sectors with a higher share of firms above a given size exhibit higher intensity of political activity. This prediction is borne out by the data: industries characterized by higher firm size dispersion obtain a higher level of protection. The model is also tested against the leading 'Protection for Sale' paradigm, employing a newly matched data set on firm-level political contributions. The empirical evidence shows that, accounting for individual firm behavior, the model explains a larger fraction of the variation of protection across sectors.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of International Economics.

Volume (Year): 75 (2008)
Issue (Month): 2 (July)
Pages: 329-348
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Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:75:y:2008:i:2:p:329-348

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505552

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  1. Carolyn L. Evans & Shane M. Sherlund, 2006. "Are antidumping duties for sale? case-level evidence on the Grossman-Helpman protection for sale model," International Finance Discussion Papers 888, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  2. Mirabelle Muuls & Dimitra Petropoulou, 2007. "A Swing-State Theory of Trade Protection in the Electoral College," Economics Series Working Papers 372, University of Oxford, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Del Gatto, Massimo & Ottaviano, Gianmarco Ireo Paolo & Pagnini, Marcello, 2007. "Openness to Trade and Industry Cost Dispersion: Evidence from a Panel of Italian Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 6336, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Andrei A. Levchenko & Qu� To�n �o, 2006. "Trade, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Institutions," IMF Working Papers 06/56, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Taiji Furusawa & Hideo Konishi, 2008. "Contributing or Free-Riding? Voluntary Participation in a Public Good Economy," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 681, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 14 Jul 2009. [Downloadable!]
  6. Susumu Imai & Hajime Katayama & Kala Krishna, 2008. "Is Protection Really for Sale? A Survey and Directions for Future Research," NBER Working Papers 13899, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Susumu Imai & Hajime Katayama & Kala Krishna, 2008. "A Quantile-based Test of Protection for Sale Model," NBER Working Papers 13900, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Richard Baldwin, 2007. "Multilateralising Regionalism: Sphagetti Bowls as building Blocs on the Path to Global Free Trade," Working Papers id:1231, esocialsciences.com. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Ludema, Rodney D & Mayda, Anna Maria, 2005. "Do Countries Free Ride on MFN?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5160, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Kishore Gawande & Pravin Krishna & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2005. "Lobbying Competition Over Trade Policy," NBER Working Papers 11371, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda & Prachi Mishra, 2007. "Do Interest Groups Affect Immigration?," IZA Discussion Papers 3183, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  12. Nathan Nunn & Daniel Trefler, 2006. "Putting the Lid on Lobbying: Tariff Structure and Long-Term Growth when Protection is for Sale," NBER Working Papers 12164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Matilde Bombardini & Francesco Trebbi, 2009. "Competition and Political Organization: Together or Alone in Lobbying for Trade Policy?," NBER Working Papers 14771, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Susumu Imai & Hajime Katayama & Kala Krishna, 2006. "Protection for Sale or Surge Protection?," Working Papers 1114, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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