Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) have been in the regulator's spotlight since the subprime crisis occurred and they remain under criticism due to suspected conflicts of interest that could arise from clients soliciting a rating. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the current discussion on...

This paper provides empirical evidence that higher lobbying expenditures are associated with higher operational performance variability. The estimates indicate a positive relationship between lobbying expenditures and the variability of return on asset and return on equity. The results are...

This paper examines the effect of firms’ lobbying activities on penalties received from public competition authorities. We show that lobbying expenditures are negatively associated with the amount of the cartel sanction, within cartel. Our estimates also report that cartel sanctions are more...