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Chapter 7 Summary of Findings and Implications
- University of Michigan Press
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Chapter 7 Summary of Findings and Implications Table 7.1 summarizes the major ‹ndings about human capital and politics uncovered in our inquiry. Investments in on-the-job training clearly pay off handsomely for legislators, whether they anticipate changing careers or earning lucrative postelective salaries. In this sense, our study reaches the same conclusion as Becker (1993) and other human capitalists: job training increases future returns. We might take a step further by suggesting that although ability, talent, and endowments go a long way in determining legislators ’ fortunes in later life, training seems equally powerful in this regard. In the following pages we recount and discuss our major ‹ndings and the implications that can be derived from them. General and Specialized Training The salary boost engendered by general training and the acquisition of expansive skill sets result from the scarcity of these skills and the option value associated with general training capital. These assets allow former legislators greater choice in deciding which economic sectors will be most pro‹table to enter. These skills are scarce in part because they are so costly to acquire within Congress, like membership on the House Rules Committee or service in a succession of political leadership posts. Similarly, we found that investments (years of service) on committees providing general training increased postelective salaries (table 6.3). Training also helps legislators acquire speci‹c skill packages through their committee assignments and other congressional experiences. If legislators have tired of their precongressional occupations, for whatever reason, Congress provides manifold opportunities for specialized training that equips legislators with skills necessary for career changes. Three factors encourage legislator specialization: legislators’ desire to ‹nd someone to foot the bill for 161 CAPITOL INVESTMENTS 162 • their elections, the expectation of future career changes, and the cost of acquiring broad skill sets. Specialized skills, though perhaps of little value in enhancing postelective salaries, are particularly important in supplying the human capital necessary for subsequent career changes. This may seem something of a paradox: general training and inclusive skill sets enhance postelective salaries, but legislators are by and large specialists . This seeming contradiction can be explained by considering a few points. First, postelective salaries do not take into consideration the costs of an education in politics. Specialists have the costs of their campaigns subsidized to a greater degree than do generalists; hence, nonsubsidized campaign costs must be deducted from generalists’ postelective earnings or amortized across postelective lifetimes. The result would certainly be a lower level of real postelective earnings for generalists. Second, legislators may have no alternative but to specialize, at least in the short run, since few can afford to ‹nance their own reelections; being beholden to special interests for campaign money assures specialization in politics . And, after all, legislators need to keep getting reelected just to accumulate the human capital that enhances the marketability of political skills. Pragmatism, if nothing else, leads legislators to specialize because they know that special interests will cover their campaign costs if they do so. Third, salary premiums may be paid to those who have acquired broad skills because such skill sets are so rare; scarcity affects value and price. Hence, even if members preferred general training to specialization, the opportunities to invest in the latter are far greater. Legislators’investment strategies conTABLE 7.1. Summary of Findings: Human Capital Factors Precongressional Dependent Capital: Nontraining On-the-Job Breadth of Variables Abilities/Endowments Capital Training Skill Set Breadth of skill set Prior political X X experiencea Job mobility X X Choosing to lobby Reputational X capitala Postelective Precongressional X X earnings salarya Campaign support General traininga a This is the only factor within this category of variables that significantly influences (or approaches statistical significance with) the dependent variable. [3.215.77.96] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:08 GMT) sequently emphasize specialized training because of its greater availability and lower cost. Finally, specialization is extremely important for those ex-legislators interested in changing vocations; hence, some of the economic effects of specialization may not be readily apparent just from computing salary differences . The ability to switch vocations is one signi‹cant economic factor that may encourage legislators to specialize despite the ‹nancial loss they may suffer in postelective salary.1 For many employees, a better or different job—indeed , a new career—is worth taking a lower salary. Some ex-legislators may be of the same mind.2 We might still say that, all things equal, it probably does not pay for legislators to specialize...