Corporate Influence and Political Corruption: Lessons from Stock Market Reactions to Political Events

摘要

Americans are deeply cynical about both corporations and politicians. For the past several decades, Gallup has conducted regular polls of public confidence in various social and political institutions, with big business and Congress consistently ranking at the bottom of the list (see, e.g., Gallup 2013). Not surprisingly then, corporate political spending and lobbying are viewed with suspicion, further fueled by exaggerated rhetoric from reform-minded pundits, advocacy groups, and demagogues. Indeed, it's hard to imagine an easier means to curry favor with the mass public than to decry the influence of big business in politics! And although there is no shortage of academics who ride this bandwagon, many scholars of American politics understand both the role of money in politics and the influence of corporations to be much more limited than imagined by the conventional wisdom.