[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v27y1999i4p418-433.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Compensation Schemes and Human Capital Attainment in Congress: Is There an Adverse Selection of Legislator Attributes?

Author

Listed:
  • Franklin G. Mixon Jr.

    (University of Southern Mississippi)

  • James B. Wilkinson

    (University of Southern Mississippi)

Abstract
This study examines the role that compensation plays in the self-selection process of legislator attributes in the U.S. Congress. The statistical results from the 104th Congress suggest that human capital levels of senators are significantly different from those of representatives, and this result is likely due to adverse selection because of the disparity in compensation schemes across the two chambers of the Congress. Such a result has potentially significant consequences given the constitutional provisions that place taxation authority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the fact that House members sponsor vastly larger amounts of spending legislation (and total legislation) than senators. Although much future work is needed to be done, this study lays a foundation for public choice scholars to ponder.

Suggested Citation

  • Franklin G. Mixon Jr. & James B. Wilkinson, 1999. "Compensation Schemes and Human Capital Attainment in Congress: Is There an Adverse Selection of Legislator Attributes?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(4), pages 418-433, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:27:y:1999:i:4:p:418-433
    DOI: 10.1177/109114219902700404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/109114219902700404
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/109114219902700404?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blaug, Mark, 1976. "The Empirical Status of Human Capital Theory: A Slightly Jaundiced Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 827-855, September.
    2. Arleen Leibowitz, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 432-456, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Lang, Kevin & Kahn, Shulamit, 1990. "Efficiency Wage Models of Unemployment: A Second View," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(2), pages 296-306, April.
    4. Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1977. "Education and Screening," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 949-958, December.
    5. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    6. Crain, W Mark & Deaton, Thomas H & Tollison, Robert D, 1977. "Legislators as Taxicabs: On the Value of Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(2), pages 298-302, April.
    7. Theodore W. Schultz, 1962. "Reflections on Investment in Man," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 1-8, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Avner Bar-Ilan, 1991. "Monitoring Workers as a Screening Device," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 24(2), pages 460-470, May.
    9. Campbell, Tim S. & Chan, Yuk-Shee & Marino, Anthony M., 1989. "Incentive contracts for managers who discover and manage investment projects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 353-364, December.
    10. Lazear, Edward, 1977. "Academic Achievement and Job Performance: Note," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 252-254, March.
    11. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Griliches, Zvi, 1977. "Estimating the Returns to Schooling: Some Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 1-22, January.
    13. repec:bla:scandj:v:97:y:1995:i:2:p:295-307 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Arleen Leibowitz, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," NBER Chapters, in: Marriage, Family, Human Capital, and Fertility, pages 111-135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Leibowitz, Arleen, 1974. "Home Investments in Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 111-131, Part II, .
    16. Besley, Timothy & McLaren, John, 1993. "Taxes and Bribery: The Role of Wage Incentives," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(416), pages 119-141, January.
    17. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    18. Sahota, Gian Singh, 1978. "Theories of Personal Income Distribution: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 1-55, March.
    19. Landers, Renee M & Rebitzer, James B & Taylor, Lowell J, 1996. "Rat Race Redux: Adverse Selection in the Determination of Work Hours in Law Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 329-348, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Franklin G. Mixon & Amanda C. Pagels, 2007. "Are Congressional Black Caucus Members More Reliable? Loyalty Screening and Committee Assignments of Newly Elected Legislators," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 413-431, April.
    2. Richard Cebula & Franklin Mixon & Mark Montez, 2015. "Teachers’ salaries and human capital, and their effects on academic performance: an institution-level analysis of Los Angeles County high schools," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 39(2), pages 347-356, April.
    3. Franklin G. Mixon Jr & Sean P. Salter, 2008. "Legislative Pay and Legislator Quality," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 22(4), pages 679-695, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gensowski, Miriam, 2018. "Personality, IQ, and lifetime earnings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 170-183.
    2. Kazamaki Ottersten, Eugenia & Mellander, Erik & Meyerson, Eva M. & Nilson, Jörgen, 1994. "Pitfalls in the Measurement of the Return to Education: An Assessment Using Swedish Data," Working Paper Series 414, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    3. James J. Heckman, 2015. "Introduction to A Theory of the Allocation of Time by Gary Becker," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(583), pages 403-409, March.
    4. Thiel, Hendrik & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2013. "Noncognitive skills in economics: Models, measurement, and empirical evidence," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 189-214.
    5. Jere R. Behrman, 1994. "Intra-family Distribution in Developing Countries," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 253-296.
    6. Emilia Bedyk & Jacek Liwiński, 2016. "The wage premium from parents’ investments in the education of their children in Poland," Working Papers 2016-14, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    7. Jacek Liwiński & Emilia Bedyk, 2016. "Does it pay to invest in the education of children?," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 47.
    8. Holmes, Jessica, 2003. "Measuring the determinants of school completion in Pakistan: analysis of censoring and selection bias," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 249-264, June.
    9. Reuben Gronau, 2010. "Zvi Griliches' Contribution to the Theory of Human Capital," NBER Chapters, in: Contributions in Memory of Zvi Griliches, pages 275-297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Byoung Uk Kang & Jin-Mo Kim & Oded Palmon & Zhaodong Zhong, 2020. "Are college education and job experience complements or substitutes? Evidence from hedge fund portfolio performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1247-1278, May.
    11. Jessica Holmes, 1999. "Measuring the Determinants of School Completion in Pakistan: Analysis of Censoring and Selection Bias," Working Papers 794, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    12. Andrew Weiss, 1995. "Human Capital vs. Signalling Explanations of Wages," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 133-154, Fall.
    13. Carlos Giovanni González Espitia & Jhon James Mora Rodríguez & Andrés Felipe Cuadros Meñaca, 2014. "Oportunidades educativas y características familiares en Colombia: un análisis por cohortes," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.
    14. Guillermo Jopen & Walter Gómez & Herbert Olivera, 2014. "Sistema educativo peruano: balance y agenda pendiente," Documentos de Trabajo / Working Papers 2014-379, Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
    15. David A Green & W Craig Riddell, "undated". "Literacy, Numeracy and Labour Market Outcomes in Canada," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 47, McMaster University.
    16. Fossen, Frank M. & Büttner, Tobias J.M., 2013. "The returns to education for opportunity entrepreneurs, necessity entrepreneurs, and paid employees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 66-84.
    17. Mirjam van Praag & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Justin van der Sluis, 2009. "Returns for Entrepreneurs versus Employees: The Effect of Education and Personal Control on the Relative Performance of Entrepreneurs vis-a-vis Wage Employees," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-111/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    18. Jean Luc De Meulemeester & Claude Diebolt, 2004. "The economies of education: unkept promises?," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 47(3-4), pages 303-320.
    19. Ssekabira Ntege & Steven F. Koch, 2008. "Returns to Schooling: Skills Accumulation or Information Revelation?," Working Papers 087, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    20. David Card & Alan B. Krueger, 1996. "Labor Market Effects of School Quality: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 5450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:27:y:1999:i:4:p:418-433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.