Title:      MPs for Sale? Estimating Returns to Office in
Post-War British Politics

Authors:    Andrew Eggers, Jens Hainmueller

Entrydate:  2008-03-22 14:06:15

Keywords:   regression discontinuity design, RDD, matching, UK,
Britain, political economy

Abstract:   While the role of money in policymaking is a central
question in political economy research, surprisingly little
attention has been given to the rents politicians actually
derive from politics. We use both matching and a regression
discontinuity design to analyze an original dataset on the
estates of recently deceased British politicians. We find that
serving in Parliament roughly doubled the wealth at death of
Conservative MPs but had no discernible effect on the wealth of
Labour MPs. We argue that Conservative MPs profited from office
in a lax regulatory environment by using their political
positions to obtain outside work as directors, consultants, and
lobbyists, both while in office and after retirement. Our
results are consistent with anecdotal evidence on MPs' outside
financial dealings but suggest that the magnitude of
Conservatives' financial gains from office was larger than has
been appreciated.

http://polmeth.wustl.edu/retrieve.php?id=740

**********************************************************
             Political Methodology E-Mail List
   Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
            Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
**********************************************************
        Send messages to [log in to unmask]
  To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
           your subscription settings visit:

          http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php

**********************************************************