Abstract
Lobbying is potentially welfare improving if it is a form of information transmission. This paper studies when and for whom this is the case. In the model, a government (G) can redistribute income between two interest groups (A and B). Only one of them (A) has the opportunity to lobby. Lobbying is understood as A’s acquiring and strategically revealing policy-relevant information to G. Among the results is that A may be worse off as a consequence of lobbying while B is better off. It can also be the case that lobbying makes both the active and passive interest groups and the government all worse off.