Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences

We study political dynasties in the United States Congress since its inception in 1789. We document historic and geographic patterns in the evolution and pro…le of political dynasties, and analyze the connection between political dynasties and political competition. We also study the self-perpetuation of political elites. We …nd that legislators who enjoy longer tenures are signi…cantly more likely to have relatives entering Congress later. Using instrumental variables methods, we establish that this relation ship is causal: a longer period in power increases the chance that a person may start (or continue) a political dynasty. Therefore, dynastic political power is self-perpetuating in that a positive exogenous shock to a person’s political power has persistent e¤ects through posterior dynastic attainment. In politics, power begets power.