The largest firms do the most lobbying and rarely stop once they begin

Despite the fact that lobbying is the primary way in which businesses try to impact policy in the United States and that the influence of large corporations is hotly debated, there is little comprehensive evidence on these issues. This is particularly true with respect to business’ behavior over time. In recent research William R. Kerr, William F. Lincoln, and Prachi Mishra study these issues for the first time for all publicly traded firms in the US. They find that lobbying is primarily done by the largest firms who have previously lobbied. Further, lobbying behavior is highly persistent over time, leading the largest firms to dominate changes in yearly total expenditures. Their findings have significant implications for understanding how lobbying works, the stability of policy, and why some types of legislation are passed and others are not.