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WORKING PAPER
Intrainstitutional Mobility in the Postreform House of Representatives
Wawro, Gregory
Abstract
Theory: When deciding whom to promote to prestigious positions within
the House, members will favor those individuals who are the most likely to use
the resources associated with prestigious positions to produce legislation
when there is substantial demand for it. Members will select those
individuals who have demonstrated a propensity for engaging in legislative
entrepreneurship because they are the most qualified in this regard.
Hypothesis: "The job ladders hypothesis": Members who engage
in legislative entrepreneurship are more likely to move up the job ladder to
prestigious positions within the committee and party hierarchies in the House.
Method: I develop measures of legislative entrepreneurship using data
on the characteristics of bills sponsored by members and members' testimony
before committees. I develop a statistical model that addresses the problems
of analyzing intrainstitutional mobility and the problems with assessing
entrepreneurial ability. With this model I perform a multivariate analysis to
assess the effects of legislative entrepreneurship while accounting for other
variables that previous studies have found to affect intrainstitutional
mobility.
Results: Engaging in legislative entrepreneurship increases the
probability that members of the majority party will advance to full committee,
subcommittee, and party leadership positions.
Keywords
career concerns legislative entrepreneurship legislative organization maximum likelihood methods mobility analysis vacancy competition
File
Uploaded
08-26-1998
Document ID Number
320
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