Friends in High Places

Lauren Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2014, vol. 6, issue 3, 63-91

Abstract: We demonstrate that personal connections amongst US politicians have a significant impact on Senate voting behavior. Networks based on alumni connections between politicians are consistent predictors of voting behavior. We estimate sharp measures that control for common characteristics of the network, as well as heterogeneous impacts of a common network characteristic across votes. We find that the effect of alumni networks is close to 60 percent as large as the effect of state-level considerations. We show that politicians use school ties as a mechanism to engage in vote trading ("logrolling"), and that alumni networks help facilitate the procurement of discretionary earmarks.

JEL-codes: D72 D85 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.6.3.63
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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