Jahrestagung der Public Choice Society in Seattle

Nils Goldschmidt und Theo Simon waren vom 14.-16.März 2023 auf der Jahrestagung der Public Choice Society in Seattle und haben dort ihr aktuelles Projekt "The Nature of a Lobby. A Transaction Cost Approach to the Process of Lobbyism" vorgestellt.

Mehr Informationen zur Jahrestagung der Public Choice Society finden Sie hier.

Abstract:

We propose that a theory of lobbying should address three fundamental questions: Who lobbies? Why do they lobby? And how do they lobby? The first two questions have been extensively discussed by scholars of Political Economy. We hypothesize that the third question (How?) remains unanswered. Although there is a substantial body of literature on two channels of lobbying, namely monetary contributions and providing information, these approaches only analyze single channels of lobbying and do not provide a general perspective on the lobbying process itself. We argue that groups that have a (partial) price-maker position in the market they are primarily acting in, as well as in the one for political services, are the most powerful lobbies. These groups can shape the transaction cost structure of both markets. We identify transaction costs as an important target of lobbying activities and suggest regulating institutions which shape transaction costs if lobbyism is to be regulated. We use the theory developed to evaluate the potential of the Digital Markets Act for the regulation of lobbying behavior. It becomes apparent that the DMA primarily constitutes competition policy.