TY  - JOUR
AU  - Figueiredo,John M. de
TI  - Committee Jurisdiction, Congressional Behavior and Policy Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17171
PY  - 2011
Y2  - June 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17171
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17171.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John M. de Figueiredo
The Law School and Fuqua School
Duke University
210 Science Drive, Box 90360
Durham, NC 27708
Tel: 919-613-8513
E-Mail: jdefig@law.duke.edu
AB  - The literature on congressional committees has largely overlooked the impact of jurisdictional fights on policy proposals and outcomes.  This paper develops a theory of how legislators balance the benefits of expanded committee jurisdiction against preferred policy outcomes.   It shows why a) senior members and young members in safe districts are most likely to challenge a committee’s jurisdiction; b) policy proposals may be initiated off the proposer’s ideal point in order to obtain jurisdiction; c) policy outcomes will generally be more moderate with jurisdictional fights than without these turf wars.   We empirically investigate these results examining proposed Internet intellectual property protection legislation in the 106th Congress.
ER  -