Gender Attitudes in the Judiciary: Evidence from US Circuit Courts
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16,
no. 1, January 2024
(pp. 314-50)
Abstract
Do gender attitudes influence interactions with female judges in US circuit courts? In this paper, we propose a judge-specific measure of gender attitudes based on use of gender-stereotyped language in the judge's authored opinions. Exploiting quasi-random assignment of judges to cases and conditioning on judges' characteristics, we validate the measure showing that higher-slant judges vote more conservatively in gender-related cases. Higher-slant judges interact differently with female colleagues: they are more likely to reverse lower court decisions if the lower court judge is a woman than a man, are less likely to assign opinions to female judges, and cite fewer female-authored opinions.Citation
Ash, Elliott, Daniel L. Chen, and Arianna Ornaghi. 2024. "Gender Attitudes in the Judiciary: Evidence from US Circuit Courts." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (1): 314-50. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210435Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- K41 Litigation Process
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