The article studies how politicians spend resources to gain special privileges from lobbying groups. By combining different economic models, the researchers found that when everyone lobbies, the benefits politicians get and the local public goods provided don't change based on who wins. However, if there are fixed costs for lobbying, the results are like when regular citizens run for office. When additional expenses matter, fewer people join the political race, leading to less spending on trying to win special favors. Despite the idea that all money spent on lobbying would be wasted, in reality, because not many people take part in politics, there is less excessive spending overall.