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Interest Groups Versus Voters and the Political Economics of Attention

Research Project
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01.10.2016
 - 31.12.2037

This project examines whether interest groups are more successful in shaping legislation in their favor during periods of low media attention to politics. The underlying rationale is that legislators get less likely disciplined by their voters since news on the legislative process are crowded out during these times. In our analysis based on 1,386 roll calls on 1,298 different bills between 2005 and 2014 in the US Congress, we exploit exogenous variation in public attention to the lawmaking process and find strong evidence supporting this mechanism. Our findings suggest that policy-markers manage to schedule votes that are sensitive to moneyed interests into periods that coincide with newsworthy events, turning the focus away from Congress. Whereas this mechanism is possible in the House, the institutional setting limits such actions in the Senate.

Collaborations & Cooperations

2037 - Participation or Organization of Collaborations on a national level
Matter, Ulrich, Assistant Professor, University of St. Gallen, Research cooperation

Members (3)

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Alois Stutzer

Principal Investigator
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Patrick Balles

Co-Investigator
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Ulrich Matter

Co-Investigator