This paper explores the link between the political influence of the financial industry and financial regulation in the run-up to the global financial crisis. We construct a detailed database documenting the lobbying activities, campaign contributions, and political connections of the financial...

This paper explores the link between the political influence of the financial industry and financial regulation in the run-up to the global financial crisis. We construct a detailed database documenting the lobbying activities, campaign contributions, and political connections of the financial...

Has the political influence of the financial industry had any bearing on financial regulation and, ultimately, the recent financial crisis? This paper discusses the findings of recent research that uses a detailed database of the lobbying activities, campaign contributions, political connections...

Has lobbying by financial institutions contributed to the financial crisis? This paper uses detailed information on financial institutions' lobbying and mortgage lending activities to answer this question. We find that lobbying was associated with more risk-taking during 2000-07 and with worse...

We analyze the implications of linking the compensation of fund managers to the return of their portfolio relative to that of a benchmark. In the presence of such relative-performance-based objectives, investors have reduced expected utility but markets are typically more informative and deeper....