My work on judicial elections shows that elected judges serve their constituents (see also Judge and Jury). In particular, when the defendant is an out-of-state corporation awards are much higher in states that use partisan elections to select their judges than in other states. As one judge put it bluntly:As long as I am allowed to redistribute wealth from out-of-state companies to injured in-state plaintiffs, I shall continue to do so. Not only is my sleep enhanced when I give someone's else money away, but so is my job security, because the in-state plaintiffs, their families, and their friends will reelect me."
Richard Neely (1988), West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Incentives matter: electing judges file
This example comes from Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution. Tabarrok writes
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