Money and muscle: corporate political power and government subsidies

Abstract

Political power is one of the most extensively discussed issues in political economy, although prior researchers provide few metrics for its estimation. This study introduces a new set of corporate political power measures using the political power of individual legislators and firms’ political contributions. Using these new measures, we find that politically powerful firms receive more subsidies at all levels of government. They receive fewer subsidies after they lose political power, but more government largesse after they increase their power.