Revolving door laws and state public utility commissioners

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of revolving door regulations - laws that restrict the post-government employment opportunities of public sector workers - on the characteristics of state public utility commissioners. We find that commissioners from states with revolving door regulations have less expertise, serve shorter terms, and are less likely to be subsequently employed by the private sector, compared with their counterparts from states without revolving door laws. These findings suggest that revolving door regulations may have costly unintended consequences. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.