Ideology, Electoral Incentives, PAC Contributions, and the Agricultural Act of 2014

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of legislator ideology, electoral incentives, and interest group political action committee (PAC) spending on the passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014. A mixed process model is used to examine the correlations between ideology, constituent characteristics, and PAC campaign contributions by agricultural and environmental interests and the probability that a legislator voted in favor of the bill. Instrumental variables are used to control for potential endogeneity in the effect of PAC contributions on legislators’ votes. I find a positive association between both agricultural and environmental PAC contributions and the probability that a legislator voted in favor of the bill. Further, I find that legislators representing districts or states with relatively large rural populations were more likely to vote in favor of the 2014 Farm Bill.