The Case for Hiring a Former Politician

National Journal: “Collecting data from 1996 to 2011, financial researchers Reza Houston and Stephen P. Ferris tracked 243 politicians—including senators, House members, governors, cabinet secretaries, presidents, and vice presidents—who made the jump from public office to an executive or official role at a publicly traded company. They analyzed the stock performance of those companies, both in the days after the hiring announcement, and then over a three-year span.”

“To make that comparison to the overall market, Houston and his coauthor set up another portfolio of stocks with a similar risk assessment, but filled it with companies that did not have political connections… Those stocks beat the average return by 3.65 percent.”