The authors thank Michelle Czerkawski, Roberta Reese, and Patti Waterbury of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) for generous assistance with sourcing of data and interviews; Anne Beatty, Paul Healy, Larita Killian (discussant), Krish Menon, John Minahan, Karthik Ramanna, Eddie Riedl, Ross Watts, Joe Weber, and workshop participants at Bocconi University, Boston University, Brigham Young University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, INSEAD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Connecticut, the 2015 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, the 2015 Overseas Chinese Accounting Scholars Symposium, the 2015 Tilburg Accounting Spring Camp, and the 2016 Virginia Accounting Research Conference for helpful comments and suggestions; and Jeremy Gold (Jeremy Gold Pensions), Jim Lamenzo (Massachusetts Public Retirement Systems), and Dean Mead (GASB) for useful discussions. The paper was formerly circulated under the title “Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules.”
