TY - JOUR
T1 - State Policy and Lobbying in a Federal System
T2 - Evidence from the Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy, 1998–2012
AU - Kim, Sung Eun
AU - Urpelainen, Johannes
AU - Yang, Joonseok
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - State policies shape firms’ incentives to lobby in the United States, but the existing lobbying literature mostly ignores these incentives. Using lobbying records for all electric utilities in the United States from 1998 to 2012, we examine how state policies affect federal lobbying by both proponents and opponents of federal support for the renewable energy policy. Our theory predicts that supportive state policies reduce the returns to lobbying by both proponents and opponents. Empirically, we show that when the federal production tax credit for renewable energy is about to expire, electric utilities from states without renewable portfolio standards become more likely to lobby than those from states with these policies. Because the timing of the expiration of the production tax credit is quasi-random, these findings carry a causal interpretation. Using text analysis techniques, we also show that the lobbying efforts are focused on energy and environmental issues while lobbying on unrelated topics remains unaffected.
AB - State policies shape firms’ incentives to lobby in the United States, but the existing lobbying literature mostly ignores these incentives. Using lobbying records for all electric utilities in the United States from 1998 to 2012, we examine how state policies affect federal lobbying by both proponents and opponents of federal support for the renewable energy policy. Our theory predicts that supportive state policies reduce the returns to lobbying by both proponents and opponents. Empirically, we show that when the federal production tax credit for renewable energy is about to expire, electric utilities from states without renewable portfolio standards become more likely to lobby than those from states with these policies. Because the timing of the expiration of the production tax credit is quasi-random, these findings carry a causal interpretation. Using text analysis techniques, we also show that the lobbying efforts are focused on energy and environmental issues while lobbying on unrelated topics remains unaffected.
KW - energy and environment
KW - federal and state policies
KW - lobbying
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085018319&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85085018319&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1532440020918865
DO - 10.1177/1532440020918865
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85085018319
JO - State Politics and Policy Quarterly
JF - State Politics and Policy Quarterly
SN - 1532-4400
ER -