Endogenous Cost Lobbying: Theory and Evidence

Special interests attempt to influence lawmakers through campaign contributions and through informational lobbying. Both avenues have been explored extensively in theoretical models. Only the former, however, has received much empirical scrutiny. We provide the first empirical tests of the major class of models of costly legislative lobbying, the Potters-van Winden-Grossman-Helpman (PWGH) model. To do so, we extend a simple PWGH model to encompass situations in which a legislature adjusts a pre-existing policy only periodically. We then test predictions of the model using data derived from over 50,000 observations of annual lobbying expenditures by special interest groups in the American states. We find that, as predicted, special interest groups 1) increase lobbying expenditures when the legislature is controlled by "enemies" rather than by "friends"; 2) increase lobbying expenditures in budget years in states with biennial budgeting, relative to budget years in states with annual budgeting; and, 3) increasingly exit the lobbying process as lobbying costs rise. Overall, the results provide substantial empirical support for the PWGH class of signaling models of interest group lobbying in legislative settings.

Quitting in Protest: A Theory of Presidential Policy Making and Agency Response

This paper examines the effects of centralized presidential policy-making, implemented through unilateral executive action, on the willingness of bureaucrats to exert effort and stay in the government. Extending models in organizational economics, we show that policy initiative by the president is a substitute for initiative by civil servants. Yet, total effort is enhanced when both work. Presidential centralization of policy often impels policy-oriented bureaucrats ( zealots ) to quit rather than implement presidential policies they dislike. Those most likely to quit are a range of moderate bureaucrats. More extreme bureaucrats may be willing to wait out an opposition president in the hope of tempering future policy when an allied president is elected. As control of the White House alternates between ideologically opposed extreme presidents, policy-minded moderates are stripped from bureaucratic agencies leaving only policy extremists or poorly performing slackers. These departures degrade policy initiative in moderate agencies

Public Sector Personnel Economics: Wages, Promotions, and the Competence-Control Trade-off

We model personnel policies in public agencies, examining how wages and promotion standards can partially offset a fundamental contracting problem: the inability of public sector workers to contract on performance, and the inability of political masters to contract on forbearance from meddling. Despite the dual contracting problem, properly constructed personnel policies can encourage intrinsically motivated public sector employees to invest in expertise, seek promotion, remain in the public sector, and develop policy projects. However, doing so requires internal personnel policies that sort slackers from zealots. Personnel policies that accomplish this task are quite different in agencies where acquired expertise has little value in the private sector, and agencies where acquired expertise commands a premium in the private sector. Finally, even with well-designed personnel policies, there remains an inescapable trade-off between political control and expertise acquisition

Strategic Auditing in a Political Hierarchy: An Informational Model of the Supreme Court\u27s Certiorari Decisions

We examine how the Supreme Court uses signals and indices from lower courts to determine which cases to review. In our game theoretic model, a higher court cues from publicly observable case facts, the known preferences of a lower court and its derision. The lower court attempts to enforce its own preferences, exploiting ambiguity in cases\u27 fact patterns. In equilibrium, a conservative higher court declines to review conservative decisions from lower courts regardless of the facts of die case or the relative ideology of the judges. But a conservative higher court probabilistically reviews liberal decisions, with the audit rate tied to observable facts and the ideology of the lower court judge. We derive comparative static results and rest them with a random sample of search-and-seizure cases appealed to the Burger Court between 1972 and 1986. The evidence broadly supports the model

A new species of Cosmocerca (Nematoda: Cosmoceridae and other helminths in Cyrtodactylus gubaot (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Philippines

Cosmocerca leytensis sp. nov. (Ascaridida, Cosmocercidae) from the large intestine of Cyrtodactylus gubaot (Squamata: Gekkonidae) collected on Leyte Island, Philippines is described and illustrated. Cosmocerca leytensis sp. nov. is the 30th species assigned to the genus, the 4th from the Oriental region, and the first from the Philippine Islands. The new species is most similar to those species possessing 4 pairs of plectanes, i.e., C. archeyi, C. australis, C. oroensis, and C sardiniae. Cosmocerca sardiniae lacks lateral alae; C. archeyi, C. australis, C. leytensis sp. nov. and C. oroensis possess lateral alae. Spicule length of C. oroensis is less than 75 ìm, while C. archeyi, C. australis, and C. leytensis sp. nov. have spicule lengths greater than 75 ìm. Males of C. australis possess 2 pairs of rosette caudal papillae, which are lacking in C. archeyi and C. leytensis sp. nov. Females of C. archeyi posses a conical tail, females of C. leytensis sp. nov. have a rounded posterior end supporting a flexible filament

An Empirical Test of the Rational Actor Theory of Litigation

This article examines the decisions of litigants in criminal cases to appeal decisions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Using a random sample of search and seizure cases from 1962 through 1990 and a measure of the likelihood that the appeals court decision will be reversed if cert is granted, we demonstrate that litigants behave as if they rationally consider costs and benefits in their decisions to appeal. Given the extraordinary number of cases decided by lower federal courts vis-g-vis the number of cases the Supreme Court can decide, we argue that such behavior is necessary if the Supreme Court is to retain control over the federal judiciary

The Effect of Comb Architecture on Complex Coacervation

Complex coacervation is a widely utilized technique for effecting phase separation, though predictive understanding of molecular-level details remains underdeveloped. Here, we couple coarse-grained Monte Carlo simulations with experimental efforts using a polypeptide-based model system to investigate how a comb-like architecture affects complex coacervation and coacervate stability. Specifically, the phase separation behavior of linear polycation-linear polyanion pairs was compared to that of comb polycation-linear polyanion and comb polycation-comb polyanion pairs. The comb architecture was found to mitigate cooperative interactions between oppositely charged polymers, as no discernible phase separation was observed for comb-comb pairs and complex coacervation of linear-linear pairs yielded stable coacervates at higher salt concentration than linear-comb pairs. This behavior was attributed to differences in counterion release by linear vs. comb polymers during polyeletrolyte complexation. Additionally, the comb polycation formed coacervates with both stereoregular poly(L-glutamate) and racemic poly(D,L-glutamate), whereas the linear polycation formed coacervates only with the racemic polyanion. In contrast, solid precipitates were obtained from mixtures of stereoregular poly(L-lysine) and poly(L-glutamate). Moreover, the formation of coacervates from cationic comb polymers incorporating up to ~90% pendant zwitterionic groups demonstrated the potential for inclusion of comonomers to modulate the hydrophilicity and/or other properties of a coacervate-forming polymer. These results provide the first detailed investigation into the role of polymer architecture on complex coacervation using a chemically and architecturally well-defined model system, and highlight the need for additional research on this topic