Working Paper: NBER ID: w13122
Authors: Ernesto Dal B; Pedro Dal B; Jason Snyder
Abstract: We study political dynasties in the United States Congress since its inception in 1789. We document historic and geographic patterns in the evolution and profile of political dynasties, study the extent of dynastic bias in legislative politics versus other occupations, and analyze the connection between political dynasties and political competition. We also study the self-perpetuation of political elites. We find that legislators who enjoy longer tenures are significantly more likely to have relatives entering Congress later. Using instrumental variables methods, we establish that this relationship is causal: a longer period in power increases the chance that a person may start (or continue) a political dynasty. Therefore, dynastic political power is self-perpetuating in that a positive exogenous shock to a person's political power has persistent effects through posterior dynastic attainment. In politics, power begets power.
Keywords: Political dynasties; Political competition; U.S. Congress; Legislative politics
JEL Codes: D70; J45; N41; N42
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| political competition (D72) | prevalence of dynastic politicians (D72) |
| length of tenure in Congress (D72) | likelihood of having relatives enter Congress later (D72) |
| holding legislative power for more than one term (D72) | likelihood that a politician will have a relative entering Congress in the future (D72) |