Using firm level data from the U.S. steel industry, we find that lobbying for import protection is habit forming, as … suggested in the rent-seeking literature. Controlling for firm performance and other factors, past lobbying increases the … likelihood of current lobbying in our full sample. Because addicted firms should behave differently from other firms, we let an …

Using U.S. steel firm data, we find that lobbying for import protection appears to be habit forming. To identify … heterogeneity in lobbying behavior among firms, we use an expectation-maximization algorithm to sort our firms into groups with … different propensities to lobby, and estimate the determinants of lobbying in each group. A two-pool model emerges: occasional …