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Replication Data for: Cardinals or Clerics? Congressional Committees and the Distribution of Pork

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Cardinals or Clerics? Congressional Committees and the Distribution of Pork
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/29375
 
Creator Berry, Christopher
Fowler, Anthony
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Journalistic and academic accounts of Congress suggest that important committee positions allow members to procure more federal funds for their constituents, but existing evidence on this topic is limited in scope and has failed to distinguish the effects of committee membership from selection onto committees. We bring together decades of data on federal outlays and congressional committee and subcommittee assignments to provide a comprehensive analysis of committee positions and distributive politics across all policy domains. Using a within-member research design, we find that seats on key committees produce little additional spending. The chairs of the Appropriations subcommittees—the so called “cardinals” of Congress—are an exception to the rule. These leadership positions do generate more funding for constituents but only from programs under the jurisdiction of their subcommittee. Our results paint a new picture of distributive politics and call for a reexamination of its canonical theories.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Distributive politics
 
Contributor Anthony Fowler