“The political economy of revolving doors in Spain, 1920-2020” (POLDOORS) is a national project lead by our fellow Sebastián Lavezzolo and founded through a grant by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2022-142261NA-I00, 2023-2026).
“This research project comprehensively and systematically examines the phenomenon of revolving doors in Spain over a century of history (1920-2020). Its objective is to generate data for 1) a rigorous description of its evolution, 2) an analysis of its causes, and 3) an analysis of its consequences. To identify the movement of individuals between the public and private sectors, it gathers information about the country’s political and economic elite, encoding the names, surnames, and years of individuals’ participation in political representation bodies and/or high-ranking positions in the administration, as well as in the boards of the country’s most significant companies. The main questions that structure the research project are: How have revolving doors evolved over the past century of Spanish history? Does the historical evolution of revolving doors correspond to changes in governance systems? What are the incentives for politicians and businesses to have individuals who have held public positions join the boards of major corporations? What incentives drive politicians and businesses to motivate individuals who have built their careers in the business world to enter politics? How does the economic and political context affect the incentive structure of politicians and entrepreneurs to engage in the revolving door phenomenon? What are the main consequences of revolving doors?”
