This paper tests a simple asset market model of campaign contributions, using data from recent U.S. Senate races. When applied to "investor" PACs, the model performs surprisingly well, and suggests that the contributions market is relatively efficient. When applied to "ideological" PACs,...

This paper analyzes a simple spatial voting model that includes lobbyists who are able to buy votes on bills to change the status quo. The key results are: (i) if lobbyists can discriminate across legislators when buying votes, then they will pay the largest bribes to legislators who are...

This paper analyzes a spatial model of two-party competition where parties are not monolithic decision makers but collections of self-motivated officeholders. Party platforms are chosen collectively by incumbent officeholders. The main result is that in a stable equilibrium party platforms do...