Multi-court judging and judicial productivity in a career judiciary: Evidence from Nepal

Peter Grajzl and Shikha Silwal ()

International Review of Law and Economics, 2020, vol. 61, issue C

Abstract: The rotation of judges across courts of equal seniority is a core, yet understudied, feature of career judiciaries. We examine the consequences of such rotation-induced spreading of judges' yearly court attendance across multiple courts, termed multi-court judging, for judicial productivity at disposing cases. Drawing on judge-level panel data from resource-starved Nepal, where multi-court judging alleviates courts' staffing and case disposition concerns, we find that multi-court judging exhibits a statistically and economically significant negative effect on judicial productivity at case resolution. The uncovered result cannot be explained by selection on unobservables, is robust to adoption of a dynamic panel instrumental variable approach, obtains under alternative model specifications, and survives a series of robustness checks. By identifying a hitherto unidentified cost associated with inter-court transfer of judges, our analysis provides a novel layer of considerations about judicial behavior and performance in career judiciaries.

Keywords: Multi-Court judging; Career judiciaries; Judicial productivity; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 K40 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:61:y:2020:i:c:s0144818819302042

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2020.105888

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