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How Do Electoral Incentives Affect Legislator Behavior? Evidence from U.S. State Legislatures

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  • FOUIRNAIES, ALEXANDER
  • HALL, ANDREW B.

Abstract

A classic question about democratic elections is how much they are able to influence politician behavior by forcing them to anticipate future reelection attempts, especially in contexts where voters are not paying close attention and are not well informed. We compile a new dataset containing roughly 780,000 bills, combined with more than 16 million roll-call voting records for roughly 6,000 legislators serving in U.S. state legislatures with term limits. Using an individual-level difference-in-differences design, we find that legislators who can no longer seek reelection sponsor fewer bills, are less productive on committees, and are absent for more floor votes, on average. Building a new dataset of roll-call votes and interest-group ratings, we find little evidence that legislators who cannot run for reelection systematically shift their ideological platforms. In sum, elections appear to influence how legislators allocate their effort in important ways even in low-salience environments but may have less influence on ideological positioning.

Suggested Citation

  • Fouirnaies, Alexander & Hall, Andrew B., 2022. "How Do Electoral Incentives Affect Legislator Behavior? Evidence from U.S. State Legislatures," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 662-676, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:116:y:2022:i:2:p:662-676_19
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    Cited by:

    1. Jon H. Fiva & Oda Nedregård, 2022. "How Does Party Discipline Affect Legislative Behavior? Evidence from Within-Session Variation in Lame Duck Status," CESifo Working Paper Series 9697, CESifo.
    2. Choi, Dahyun & Lee, Kyuwon, 2024. "Diminishing Regulatory Capacity and Corporate Political Disengagement: Evidence from State-Level Workforce Shocks," OSF Preprints ymqds, Center for Open Science.
    3. Albert Chiu & Xingchen Lan & Ziyi Liu & Yiqing Xu, 2023. "Causal Panel Analysis under Parallel Trends: Lessons from A Large Reanalysis Study," Papers 2309.15983, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2024.
    4. Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Tricaud, Clemence, 2022. "Gender and Electoral Incentives: Evidence from Crisis Response," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12411, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. Gago Andrés & Carozzi Felipe & Bermejo Vicente J. & Abad Jose M., 2023. "Government Turnover and External Financial Assistance," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4655, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.

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