Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:36:09.686Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The State Wealth-Legislative Compensation Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2008

Peverill Squire
Peverill Squire
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Abstract. Legislative scholars have paid almost no attention to explanations for the level of compensation provided to legislators, either within a country or cross-nationally, despite its importance to members and institutions. I posit a simple theory based on state wealth to explain differences in legislative pay. I test this theory using two novel data sets, one on 35 national assemblies, the other on subnational assemblies in Australia, Canada, Germany and the United States. Analysis of these data reveals that national or state wealth is strongly associated with legislator compensation. This finding is consistent with an intriguing analog in the labour economics literature.

Résumé. Les érudits du monde législatif ne se sont guère penchés sur les raisons des divers niveaux de rémunération des législateurs, à l'échelle nationale ou transnationale, malgré l'importance du sujet pour les institutions et les membres des législatures. Pour expliquer cette disparité, j'avance une simple théorie fondée sur la richesse des États. J'évalue ensuite cette théorie en m'appuyant sur deux nouvelles bases de données, la première portant sur 35 assemblées nationales et l'autre sur des assemblées sous-nationales en Australie, au Canada, en Allemagne et aux États-Unis. Ces analyses statistiques démontrent qu'il existe effectivement un lien étroit entre la richesse de l'État et la rémunération des législateurs. Cette constatation est confirmée par une analogie fascinante dans la littérature sur l'économique du travail.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
© 2008 Canadian Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bayard, Kimberly and Kenneth R. Troske. 1999. “Examining the Employer-Size Wage Premium in the Manufacturing, Retail Trade, and Service Industries Using Employer-Employee Matched Data.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 89: 99–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Charles and James Medoff. 1989. “The Employer Size-Wage Effect.” Journal of Political Economy 97: 1027–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, John M., Richard G. Niemi and Lynda W. Powell. 2000. “Incumbency and the Probability of Re-election in State Legislative Elections.” Journal of Politics 62: 671–700.Google Scholar
Cosh, Andrew. 1975. “The Remuneration of Chief Executives in the United Kingdom.” Economic Journal 85: 75–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Council of State Governments. 2005. Book of the States 2005. Lexington KY: Council of State Governments.
Dahl, Robert. 2001. “A Right to Workplace Democracy? Response to Robert Mayer.” Review of Politics 63: 249–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1994. “Divided Government in the American States: A Byproduct of Legislative Professionalism?” American Political Science Review 88: 304–16.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1997. “Professionalism, Realignment, and Representation.” American Political Science Review 91: 156–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1999. “Further Evidence of the Partisan Consequences of Legislative Professionalism.” American Journal of Political Science 43: 974–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
German Länder 2005. 2005. Wiesbaden: Statistisches Bundesamt.
Gwartney, James and Robert Lawson. 2007. Economic Freedom of the World: 2006 Annual Report. Vancouver: Fraser Institute.
Hollister, Matissa N. 2004. “Does Firm Size Matter Anymore? The New Economy and Firm Size Wage Effects.” American Sociological Review 69: 659–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, John D., Charles R. Shipan and Madelaine Pfahler. 2001. “Legislatures and Statutory Control of Bureaucracy.” American Journal of Political Science 45: 330–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Izan, H. Y., Baljit Sidhu and Stephen Taylor. 1998. “Does CEO Pay Reflect Performance? Some Australian Evidence.” Corporate Governance 6: 39–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kostiuk, Peter F. 1990. “Firm Size and Executive Compensation.” Journal of Human Resources 25: 90–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David A. and Matthew A. Baum. 2001. “The Invisible Hand of Democracy: Political Control and the Provision of Public Services.” Comparative Political Studies 34: 587–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lallemand, Thierry, Robert Plasman and François Rycx. 2005. “Why do Large Firms Pay Higher Wages? Evidence from Matched Worker-Firm Data.” International Journal of Manpower 26: 705–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, Richard A., David F. Larcker and Keith Weigelt. 1991. “How Sensitive is Executive Compensation to Organizational Size?” Strategic Management Journal 12: 395–402.Google Scholar
McCormick, Robert E. and Robert D. Tollison. 1978. “Legislatures as Unions.” Journal of Political Economy 86: 63–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellow, Wesley. 1982. “Employer Size and Wages.” Review of Economics and Statistics 64: 495–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moncrief, Gary F. 1988. “Dimensions of the Concept of Professionalism in State Legislatures: A Research Note.” State and Local Government Review 20: 128–32.Google Scholar
Moore, Henry L. 1911. Laws of Wages: An Essay in Statistical Economics. New York: Macmillan.
Morissette, Rene. 1993. “Canadian Jobs and Firm Size: Do Smaller Firms Pay Less?” Canadian Journal of Economics 26: 259–74.Google Scholar
OECD. 2005. National Accounts of OECD Countries. Paris: OECD.
Pindyck, Robert S. and Daniel L. Rubinfeld. 1991. Econometric Models and Economic Forecasting. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rosenthal, Alan. 1974. “Turnover in State Legislatures.” American Journal of Political Science 18: 609–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Christoph and Klaus F. Zimmerman. 1991. “Work Characteristics, Firm Size, and Wages.” Review of Economics and Statistics 73: 705–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sollars, David L. 1990. “A Constitutional View of Legislative Pay.” Public Choice 67: 81–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sollars, David L. 1994. “Institutional Rules and State Legislator Compensation: Success for the Reform Movement?” Legislative Studies Quarterly 19: 507–20.Google Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 1988. “Career Opportunities and Membership Stability in Legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 13: 65–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 1992. “Legislative Professionalization and Membership Diversity in State Legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 17: 69–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 2000. “Uncontested Seats in State Legislative Elections.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 25: 131–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 2007. “Measuring Legislative Professionalism: The Squire Index Revisited.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 7: 211–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill and Keith E. Hamm. 2005. 101 Chambers: Congress, State Legislatures, and the Future of Legislative Studies. Columbus OH: Ohio State University Press.
Stigler, George J. 1976. “The Sizes of Legislatures.” Journal of Legal Studies 5: 17–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Joel A. and Gary F. Moncrief. 1992. “The Evolution of the State Legislature: Institutional Change and Legislative Careers.” In Changing Patterns in State Legislative Careers, eds. Gary F. Moncrief and Joel A. Thompson. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.
Troske, Kenneth R. 1999. “Evidence on the Employer Size-Wage Premium from Worker-Establishment Matched Data.” Review of Economics and Statistics 81: 15–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooden, Mark and Bijit Bora. 1999. “Workplace Characteristics and Their Effects on Wages: Australian Evidence.” Australian Economic Papers 38: 276–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Xianming. 2000. “CEO Pay and Corporate Performance: Evidence from Canada.” Canadian Journal of Economics 33: 213–51.Google Scholar