...; M41; H57. income smoothing political costs Senate committees government contracts The chairmanship of U.S. congressional committees is traditionally based on the seniority system ( Roberts 1990 ). The member from the majority party with the longest tenure on a committee becomes chairman...

.... Using a dataset of U.S. government contracts, I find a positive relation between government contract awards and firms' external reporting quality. Consistent with procurement-related requirements driving this relation, I find that firms improve their external reporting when they begin contracting...