Record Details

Replication data for: Measuring Legislative Accomplishment, 1877-1994

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

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Title Replication data for: Measuring Legislative Accomplishment, 1877-1994
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/FNZE64
 
Creator Joshua D. Clinton
John S. Lapinski
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description

Replication data and code forthcoming. In the meanwhile, please contact the author for access to the data



Understanding the dynamics of lawmaking in the U.S. is at the center of the study of American politics. A fundamental obstacle to progress in this pursuit is the lack of direct measures of policy output, especially for the period prior to 1946. The lack of direct measures of legislative accomplishment makes it difficult to assess the performance of our political sy
stem. We provide a new measure of legislative significance and accomplishment. Specifically, we demonstrate how item response theory can be combined with a new dataset that contains every public statute enacted between 1877 and 1994 to estimate "legislative importance" across time. Although the resulting estimates provide a new opportunity for scholars interested in analyzing policymaking in the U.S. since 1877, the methodology we present is not restricted to Congress, the U.S., or lawmaking.
 
Date 2006