Publications [#15992] of Edward Tower

Papers Published

1. Omer Gokcekus, Justin Knowles and E. Tower, "Sweetening the Pot: How American Sugar Buys Protection", in The Political Economy of Trade, Aid and Foreign Investment Policies, edited by Devashish Mitra and Arvind Panagariiya (2004 forthcoming), Elsevier
   (last updated on 2010/05/14)

   Abstract:
   Abstract — Sugar growers have been capturing substantial rents from the U.S. sugar program. Despite well-documented huge welfare losses of this program, legislators have always voted against phasing it out. This paper uses Tobit analysis to explore the determinants of campaign contributions from the sugar industry to Senators from 1989 to 2002. It finds that the power and willingness of the Senators to protect sugar influence the campaign contributions significantly: Membership of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee attracts $4,266 of sugar contributions per two-year election cycle. Membership of the relevant subcommittee that deals with sugar legislation is even more profitable than membership of the agriculture committee alone: membership of the Agricultural Production, Marketing, and Stabilization of Prices Subcommittee is worth an additional $2179 for a total of $6,445. These results suggest the strength of the subcommittee in drafting specialized legislation and attracting interested members. Moreover, while the particular party affiliation does not make any difference, membership of the majority party is worth $1,235. Finally, an impressionable freshman Senator from a sugar cane state receives $8,366 more than a more senior senator from a non- sugar state.