Leadership Experience, Cosponsor Cues, and the Floor Agenda in State Legislatures

Abstract

Output from state legislatures is influenced in many ways by member experience, but while many studies have considered collective levels of experience due to term limits or turnover, little research has focused on leadership change. Leader continuity varies tremendously across legislatures, from leaders who serve for decades to chambers with change every session. In this paper, I ask whether leadership experience influences floor agendas and the linkage between cosponsor cues and bill consideration. Looking at 26 legislatures from 2012 to 2020, I find no evidence that new and continuing leaders use cues differently, indicating that leaders quickly learn to use cosponsor cues.