IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecopol/v36y2024i1p80-103.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign lobbying through domestic subsidiaries

Author

Listed:
  • Jieun Lee

Abstract

How much of lobbying activities disclosed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) actually represent foreign clients? What are their interests? By identifying the global ultimate owners of all corporate clients filing with the LDA, I find that majority‐owned subsidiaries of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) account for nearly 20% of corporate lobbying spending in 2015–2016. This amount is comparable to the entire foreign lobbying spending reported under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Domestic subsidiaries of foreign MNCs are also found to lobby more frequently and spend more lobbying than American multinationals, after controlling for firm size, industry, and PAC contributions. These subsidiaries actively lobby on issue areas that clearly benefit their foreign parents. The findings suggest that foreign MNCs may actively influence U.S. policies through their domestic subsidiaries, and that the FARA captures only part of foreign lobbying in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Jieun Lee, 2024. "Foreign lobbying through domestic subsidiaries," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 80-103, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:36:y:2024:i:1:p:80-103
    DOI: 10.1111/ecpo.12232
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12232
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecpo.12232?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lake, James, 2015. "Revisiting the link between PAC contributions and lobbying expenditures," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 86-101.
    2. William R. Kerr & William F. Lincoln & Prachi Mishra, 2014. "The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 343-379, November.
    3. Hansen, Wendy L. & Mitchell, Neil J., 2000. "Disaggregating and Explaining Corporate Political Activity: Domestic and Foreign Corporations in National Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 94(4), pages 891-903, December.
    4. Weymouth, Stephen, 2012. "Firm lobbying and influence in developing countries: a multilevel approach," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, December.
    5. Peters, Margaret E., 2014. "Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and Immigration Policy Making in the United States," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(4), pages 811-844, October.
    6. de Faria, Pedro & Sofka, Wolfgang, 2010. "Knowledge protection strategies of multinational firms--A cross-country comparison," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 956-968, September.
    7. Kishore Gawande & Pravin Krishna & Michael J. Robbins, 2006. "Foreign Lobbies and U.S. Trade Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(3), pages 563-571, August.
    8. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "What Do Trade Agreements Really Do?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 73-90, Spring.
    9. Joshua L. Kalla & David E. Broockman, 2016. "Campaign Contributions Facilitate Access to Congressional Officials: A Randomized Field Experiment," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(3), pages 545-558, July.
    10. Gawande, Kishore & Maloney, William & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel, 2009. "Foreign informational lobbying can enhance tourism: Evidence from the Caribbean," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 267-275, November.
    11. Drope, Jeffrey M. & Hansen, Wendy L., 2006. "Does Firm Size Matter? Analyzing Business Lobbying in the United States," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, August.
    12. Drope Jeffrey M & Hansen Wendy L, 2006. "Does Firm Size Matter? Analyzing Business Lobbying in the United States," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, August.
    13. Kee, Hiau Looi & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Silva, Peri, 2007. "Market access for sale," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 79-94, January.
    14. Smith, Pamela J., 2001. "How do foreign patent rights affect U.S. exports, affiliate sales, and licenses?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 411-439, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John C. Coates IV, 2012. "Corporate Politics, Governance, and Value Before and After Citizens United," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(4), pages 657-696, December.
    2. Dapeng Cai & Jie Li, 2014. "Protection versus Free Trade: Lobbying Competition between Domestic and Foreign Firms," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(2), pages 489-505, October.
    3. Egerod, Benjamin C. K. & Aaskoven, Lasse, 2024. "Why don't firms lobby? How information shapes the market for lobbying services," Working Papers 347, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    4. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2019. "Foreign in influence and domestic policy: A survey," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1928, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Andrey Stoyanov, 2016. "Regional Trade Agreements and Cross-border Lobbying: Empirical Evidence from the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement Negotiations," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 126-149, February.
    6. Kim Jin-Hyuk, 2008. "Corporate Lobbying Revisited," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-25, September.
    7. Toke S. Aidt & Facundo Albornoz & Esther Hauk, 2021. "Foreign Influence and Domestic Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 426-487, June.
    8. Jennifer Abel-Koch, 2013. "Endogenous Trade Policy with Heterogeneous Firms," Working Papers 1306, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 01 Aug 2013.
    9. John M. de Figueiredo & Brian Kelleher Richter, 2013. "Advancing the Empirical Research on Lobbying," NBER Working Papers 19698, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Guriev, Sergei & Yakovlev, Evgeny & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2010. "Interest group politics in a federation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 730-748, October.
    11. Gawande, Kishore & Maloney, William & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel, 2009. "Foreign informational lobbying can enhance tourism: Evidence from the Caribbean," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 267-275, November.
    12. Woon Leong Lin, 2019. "Is Corporate Political Activity an Investment or Agency? An Application of System GMM Approach," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, January.
    13. Juan Pablo González, 2025. "Environmental regulation, regulatory spillovers and rent-seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 202(1), pages 217-250, January.
    14. Arnaud Dellis & Mandar Oak, 2020. "Subpoena power and informational lobbying," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(2), pages 188-234, April.
    15. Zyuzina Lina A., 2018. "Lobbying As A Tool Of Economic Policy: Empirical Analysis And Directions Of Research," Annals of marketing-mba, Department of Marketing, Marketing MBA (RSconsult), vol. 1, April.
    16. Jeffrey T. Macher & John W. Mayo, 2015. "Influencing public policymaking: Firm-, industry-, and country-level determinants," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(13), pages 2021-2038, December.
    17. Ka Zeng & Karen Sebold & Yue Lu, 2020. "Global value chains and corporate lobbying for trade liberalization," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 409-443, April.
    18. Martin Gregor, 2016. "Tullock's Puzzle in Pay-and-Play Lobbying," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 368-389, November.
    19. Ms. Deniz O Igan & Thomas Lambert, 2019. "Bank Lobbying: Regulatory Capture and Beyond," IMF Working Papers 2019/171, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Yuting Gao, 2022. "Lobbying for Trade Liberalization and its Policy Influence," CAEPR Working Papers 2022-006 Classification-D, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecopol:v:36:y:2024:i:1:p:80-103. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0954-1985 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.