Lobbying, political connectedness and financial performance in the air transportation industry

While there is a deeper understanding of the outcomes to firm-level political activities in general, there are very few papers that address this relationship in transportation studies. In this paper, I empirically test firm-level rent-seeking through corporate political activity (CPA) in the air transportation industry. I find, in a sample of 46 firms over 15 years, that lobbying intensity and political connections are positively related to subsequent profitability in both fixed-effects and random-effects estimations. I also test the interaction of these two main effects and find mixed support for the moderating effect of political connections on lobbying intensity. This paper contributes to the theoretical literature on political rent-seeking and the topical literature on political action in air transportation.