Andy  Eggers and Jens Hainmueller on " Estimating Returns to Office in Post-War British Politics" 

 This Wednesday we are excited to welcome Andy Eggers and Jens Hainmueller, Government Department, Harvard University, who will present, "MPs for Sale? Estimating Returns to 
Office in Post-War British Politics'.  Andy and Jens provided the following abstract: 

 While the role of money in policymaking is a central question in political 
economy research, surprisingly little attention has been given to the rents 
politicians actually make from politics. Using an original dataset on the 
size of British politicians' estates, we find that gaining a seat in the 
House of Commons had a large effect on personal wealth: Conservative Party 
MPs died with almost twice as much money, on average, as very similar 
Parliamentary candidates who were defeated. We find no financial benefits 
for candidates from the Labour party. We argue that Conservative MPs 
profited from office in a lax regulatory environment by using their 
political positions to obtain outside work as directors, consultants, and 
lobbyists, both while in office and after retirement. Our results are 
consistent with anecdotal evidence on MPs' outside financial dealings but 
suggest that the magnitude of influence peddling was larger than has been 
appreciated. 

 The paper is available here: 
 http://people.fas.harvard.edu/~jgrimmer/MPsforsale.pdf  

  
The applied statistics workshop meets in room N-354 in CGIS-Knafel, 1737 Cambridge st.  The workshop begins at 12 noon with a light lunch, with presentations usually beginning around 1215.  

 Please contact me with any questions 
Justin Grimmer