Voluntary Retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives: Who Quits?

Most observers of Congress know that the number of representatives voluntarily retiring from the House increased in the 1970s, and there has been much speculation about the causes of this increase. For the most part, however, explanations of the increase are attempted without a solid understanding of the more general motivations for voluntary retirements. In order to understand these motivations, I ascertain the type of individual who in recent years has been the most likely to retire. In addition, I show that the reasons for voluntary retirement changed radically in the early 1970s. A different type of representative retired in the 1970s than retired in the 1960s. In the final section of this study I explore the relevance of this change to the increase in the number of retirees.