TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring the gains from labor specialization
AU - Coviello, Decio
AU - Ichino, Andrea
AU - Persico, Nicola
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was conducted in collaboration with the training unit of the Court of Rome. We are grateful to Roman Acosta for outstanding research assistance and Amelia Torrice and Margher-ita Leone for feedback on early versions of the manuscript. This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs program. The usual caveats apply.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - We estimate the productivity effects of labor specialization using a judicial environment that offers a quasi-experimental setting well suited to this purpose. Judges in this environment are randomly assigned many different types of cases. This assignment generates random streaks of same-type cases, which creates minispecialization events unrelated to the characteristics of judges or cases. We estimate that when judges receive more cases of a certain type, they become faster, that is, more likely to close cases of that type in any one of the corresponding hearings. Quality, as measured by probability of an appeal, is not negatively affected.
AB - We estimate the productivity effects of labor specialization using a judicial environment that offers a quasi-experimental setting well suited to this purpose. Judges in this environment are randomly assigned many different types of cases. This assignment generates random streaks of same-type cases, which creates minispecialization events unrelated to the characteristics of judges or cases. We estimate that when judges receive more cases of a certain type, they become faster, that is, more likely to close cases of that type in any one of the corresponding hearings. Quality, as measured by probability of an appeal, is not negatively affected.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075806877&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85075806877&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/704244
DO - 10.1086/704244
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075806877
SN - 0022-2186
VL - 62
SP - 403
EP - 426
JO - Journal of Law and Economics
JF - Journal of Law and Economics
IS - 3
ER -