PACs and Super PACs: Measuring the Changing Nature of Corruption Behavior

Abstract

Corruption behavior has been notoriously difficult to observe despite its illegal nature and importance to firms and society both economically and politically. Frequently, in empirical research, proxies for corruption are generated. A popular proxy used, as in Smith (2016), is corruption convictions. This study extends Smith’s analysis by examining data from 1998-2016, applying Smith’s shielding and liquidity hypotheses to the current study. This study finds with an updated dataset that the shielding hypothesis is supported; however, corruption convictions do not exhibit significance in the regression model. This study discusses the implications of the latter result and underscores the need for future research and more comprehensive models to examine corruption

Keywords: Super PACs, PACs, Corruption