Interest Group Battle Choice: When is it Time to Pick a Fight? ยท Lea-Rachel D. Kosnik Department of Economics University of Missouri - St. Louis St. Louis, MO 63121-4499 kosnikl@umsl.edu August 2005 Abstract Assuming that interest groups, like households, firms, or any other structured organization, have limited budgets but broad objectives, how do they pick and choose which battles to fight? The issue of interest group battle choice has received little direct attention in the literature, in large part because defining the state space of total interest group activity is often difficult to do in practice. This paper is able to overcome such a difficulty by drawing on a unique dataset regarding the hydroelectric dam relicensing process in the United States. In this context, it turns out that geography and strategic considerations are the two most important categories of variables affecting interest group battle choice. * The author gratefully acknowledges the insightful comments and help provided by Emek Basker, Dave Rose, Anne Winkler, Ken Troske, Paul Rubin, Geetanjali Pande and the conference participants at the 2005 Missouri Economics Conference and the 2005 Universities Council on Water Resources Conference.