Alexander, Raquel MeyerMazza, Stephen W.Scholz, Susan2013-07-102013-07-102009Raquel Meyer Alexander, Stephen W. Mazza & Susan Scholz, Measuring Rates of Return for Lobbying Expenditures: An Empirical Case Study of Tax Breaks for Multinational Corporations, 25 J. L. & POL. 401 (2009).https://hdl.handle.net/1808/11410Full-text available at SSRN. See link in this record.In this paper we use audited corporate tax disclosures relating to a tax holiday on repatriated earnings created by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 to examine the return on lobbying. We find firms lobbying for this provision have a return in excess of $220 for every $1 spent on lobbying, or 22,000%. Repatriating firms are more profitable overall, but surprisingly, profitability is not a predictor of repatriation amount. Rather, industry and firm size are most predictive of repatriation. Cash on hand, a proxy for ability to repatriate, is not associated with the repatriation decision or the repatriation amount. This paper provides compelling evidence that lobbying expenditures have a positive and significant return on investment.en-USMultinational firmsCorporate taxationRepatriationLobbyingArticleopenAccess