In order to fortify their position on their theory with at least the appearance of good science, Watts and
Zimmerman (1986) seem to agree that the size hypothesis was probably better expressed as the original
political cost hypothesis. After a discussion of size as a proxy, Watts and Zimmerman conclude that "the
evidence is consistent with the political cost hypothesis. However the result only appears to hold for the
largest firms" and "is driven by the oil and gas industry