Moved but not equal: age, gender, and committee transfers in the Korean National Assembly

Legislative committees are the engine rooms of parliaments, yet frequent reshuffling of membership can undermine their policy-making capacity. While extensive research examines initial committee assignments, far less attention has been paid to mid-term transfers. This study examines the determinants of committee transfers in the Korean National Assembly from the 17th through 20th assemblies (2004–2020), using original data on 1,302 legislator-term observations. The analysis yields three main findings. First, legislator age, not seniority, is the most robust predictor of transfer frequency, with older legislators experiencing fewer transfers. Second, female legislators do not differ from men in transfer probability but experience significantly higher transfer frequency, concentrated among first-term women. Third, disaggregating by transfer type shows that seniority raises committee moves while tending to reduce resignations, opposing effects that cancel out in aggregate models. Committee transfers are thus a politically structured process shaped by legislators' demographic and institutional attributes.