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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 From State Legislatures to Congress: Exploring the Effect of Legislative Professionalism on State Legislators' Career Paths in the United States

From State Legislatures to Congress: Exploring the Effect of Legislative Professionalism on State Legislators' Career Paths in the United States

Eric Chen-Hua Yu
2010 / 05
Volume 17, No.1

pp.129-147
10.6612/tjes.2010.17.01.129-147
Paper

Abstract

This essay explores the extent to which legislative professionalism alters state legislators’ career paths to Congress in the United States. Using cross-sectional data for sixteen Congresses in the period from 1974 to 2004, I argue that the likelihood of advancement to the House of Representatives for state legislators is a quadratic function of legislative professionalism measured by legislative salary. Furthermore, there exists a critical level of legislative salary that maximizes this function. At this critical level, the marginal effect of legislative professionalism on the likelihood of advancement to the House for state legislators goes to zero. Additionally, the effect of state legislative professionalism on the likelihood of advancement to the House for state legislators does not differ significantly for Democrats and Republicans.

Keywords

U.S. State Legislatures

U.S. House of Representatives

legislative professionalism

likelihood of advancement

political career