1. The Public Provision of Private Goods

2. Private vs. public goods
Private goods: benefit just one entity (one person, one corporation)
Collective goods: benefit every entity in a community (every firm in an industry, every person in the country)

3. What private goods does the government provide?
Contracts (Buying stuff)
Cell phones, computers, airplanes, missile systems
Tax breaks
Regulatory decisions for or against a business

4. How does the government provide private goods?
Contracts
Departments and agencies contract with firms to purchase goods and services
Earmarks

5. Earmarks
Congressional appropriations committees write the must-pass bills that keep the government running
13 bills written by 13 Appropriations committee subcommittees
Bills decide how much will be spent by each agency (NASA, FBI, Homeland Security dept. overall, etc.)
Earmarks are when the appropriations subcommittee/committee writes into the bill that the agency it is funding must spend money for a very specific purpose

6. How does the government provide private goods?
Contracts
Departments and agencies contract with firms to purchase goods and services
Earmarks
Regulatory agency decisions
Tax code

7. Why might corporations have a lot of influence over the provision of private goods?

8. Godwin and Seldon’s hypotheses
Lobbyists lobby when
Probability of getting benefit x Benefit > Cost
Legislator will make effort to provide a good when (it is efficient to do so)
Efficiency = Votes / Resources
Both will be more likely to act when winners know they won, and losers don’t know they lost

9. Godwin and Seldon’s hypotheses
Corporations should spend a lot on lobbying if they rely on the government
Heavily regulated industry
Industry relies on government contracts
Lobby legislators who can produce private goods efficiently
Home state members
Members on relevant committees/subcomms

10. Research design
3 industries
19 companies
Data from interviews

11. Conclusions PAC contributions go to home district, subcomm members
More communications between lobbyist for regulated industries and member staff
Corporations do most of their lobbying for private goods alone

12. How could we continue to test this hypothesis?
Opensecrets.org

13. Potential for abuse?