Earmarks and the Elite: Recent Changes in Research University Lobbying Practices

• In Event: 66.026 - Who Holds the Reins? Analysis of the Effects of Policy Influencers and State Contexts on Higher Education

Abstract

The bulk of political science research in higher education focuses on higher education institutions as recipients, rather than antecedents, of political action. Universities, however, do act politically. One of their main avenues for political action is lobbying, yet few studies in the half-century have examined higher education lobbyists. This paper attempts to fill that gap in the literature by examining university expenditures on lobbying. Through reports from the US House of Representatives and Senate it uses a difference-in-differences method to determine that the 2011 Congressional earmark ban resulted in an increase in Association of American University member institution expenditures on in-house lobbying. Additional research is needed to confirm that finding.

Author

• Christopher Russell Marsicano, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College