Outside Employment and Parliamentary Priorities

Klaus Gründler, Niklas Potrafke and Timo Wochner

No 12016, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Many democracies allow their legislators to engage in private employment, but the consequences for parliamentary priorities are still poorly understood. We collect large-scale longitudinal data on outside employment and biographic characteristics for all members of the 18th German Bundestag, and link this information to all spoken words and voting behavior in parliament. We present novel evidence that outside employment is associated with parliamentary priorities. Legislators address topics of sectors from which they receive private income more often, are more positive about these sectors, and take a generally more pro-industry stance in legislation. Our results have important implications regarding the independence of legislators.

Keywords: MPs’ outside earnings; payment of politicians; lobbying (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H11 K40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12016

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