The Case for Lobbying Transparency

Lobbying transparency regulations are hailed as a potential solution to concerns aboutthe excessive influence of special interest groups (SIGs) over policy-making. I study how theseregulations shape strategic interactions between voters, politicians and SIGs. By clarifying the processthrough which a policy was implemented, lobbying transparency helps voters hold politiciansaccountable and control the influence of SIGs. Ex-post, conditional on access, SIGs prefer to operate without lobbying transparency. Ex-ante, they may benefit from lobbying transparency because it redirect the voters’ blame towards politicians. Ultimately however, lobbying transparency standards may hurt the electoral prospects of politicians and thus risk never being implemented, potentially explaining why voters’ demand for it remains unanswered.