Who enters Congress?
We trace the family origins of Members of Congress (MC) born between 1830 and 1950, linking each MC, their parents, and their brothers to the complete-count censuses. Future MCs have always been economic outliers. By 1940, close to 60 percent of MCs aged 18–40 held a college degree, against under 5 percent of comparable young […] The post Who enters Congress? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION…
An NBER working paper reveals that Members of Congress (MCs) are overwhelmingly from the most privileged backgrounds in American society, spanning from the 19th century to the present. By 1940, 60 percent of MCs aged 18-40 held a college degree, compared to under 5 percent of similar-aged men outside Congress. In 19th-century censuses, MCs in adulthood possessed roughly three times the wealth of demographically matched controls.
Their family backgrounds are marked by higher-earning fathers, greater educational attainment, and greater wealth. The brothers of future MCs occupy a middle ground between the general population and MCs themselves. The socioeconomic metrics show that about half of an MC's adult advantage is shared with his brother, while the remaining half is his own individual achievement.
Despite the evolving American economy and political system over the past 150 years, the family background gap has only widened during this time. Even when examining four Progressive-Era reforms—women's suffrage, the secret ballot, direct primaries, and the direct election of senators—through a triple-difference design, these reforms did not result in any detectable shifts in who reaches Congress.
The study, conducted by James J. Feigenbaum, Andrew B. Hall, Daniel M. Thompson, and Jesse Yoder, documents that Congress has consistently been drawn from the most fortunate families in American society across all observed cohorts.
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