IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/ejlwec/v38y2014i3p369-391.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Searching for the source of technical inefficiency in Italian judicial districts: an empirical investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Massimo Finocchiaro Castro
  • Calogero Guccio

Abstract

In this paper, we conducted a two-stage analysis of technical efficiency in Italian judicial districts by focusing on civil cases in 2006. Unlike most of the works that apply the Data Envelopment Analysis technique to study the justice sector, in the first stage, we employed the smoothed bootstrap procedure to generate unbiased technical efficiency estimates. In the second stage, we used a semi-parametric technique (Simar and Wilson in J Econom 136(1): 31–64, 2007 ) that produces a robust inference for an unknown serial correlation between efficiency scores. Our results show that technical efficiency is explained by demand factors and supports the conclusion that opportunistic behaviour from both claimants and lawyers negatively affects technical efficiency in Italian judicial districts. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio, 2014. "Searching for the source of technical inefficiency in Italian judicial districts: an empirical investigation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 369-391, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:ejlwec:v:38:y:2014:i:3:p:369-391
    DOI: 10.1007/s10657-012-9329-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10657-012-9329-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10657-012-9329-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "A general methodology for bootstrapping in non-parametric frontier models," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 779-802.
    2. Esmeralda Ramalho & Joaquim Ramalho & Pedro Henriques, 2010. "Fractional regression models for second stage DEA efficiency analyses," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 239-255, December.
    3. Léopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: The State of the Art," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 49-78, January.
    4. R. Marselli & M. Vannini, 2004. "L'efficienza tecnica dei distretti di Corte d'Appello italiani: aspetti metodologici, benchmarking e arretrato smaltibile," Working Paper CRENoS 200409, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    5. Messick, Richard E, 1999. "Judicial Reform and Economic Development: A Survey of the Issues," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(1), pages 117-136, February.
    6. Tsekouras, Kostas & Papathanassopoulos, Fotis & Kounetas, Kostas & Pappous, Giorgos, 2010. "Does the adoption of new technology boost productive efficiency in the public sector? The case of ICUs system," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 427-433, November.
    7. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, "undated". "Doing Business in Kenya 2010," World Bank Publications - Reports 13421, The World Bank Group.
    8. Paolo Buonanno & Matteo M. Galizzi, 2009. "Advocatus, et non latro? Testing the supplier-induced demand hypothesis for Italian courts of justice," Working Papers 0914, University of Brescia, Department of Economics.
    9. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528.
    10. Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 2000. "DEA and its use in the regulation of water companies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 1-13, November.
    11. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    12. Martin Schneider, 2005. "Judicial Career Incentives and Court Performance: An Empirical Study of the German Labour Courts of Appeal," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 127-144, September.
    13. Kneip, Alois & Park, Byeong U. & Simar, Léopold, 1998. "A Note On The Convergence Of Nonparametric Dea Estimators For Production Efficiency Scores," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 783-793, December.
    14. Henry Tulkens, 2006. "On FDH Efficiency Analysis: Some Methodological Issues and Applications to Retail Banking, Courts and Urban Transit," Springer Books, in: Parkash Chander & Jacques Drèze & C. Knox Lovell & Jack Mintz (ed.), Public goods, environmental externalities and fiscal competition, chapter 0, pages 311-342, Springer.
    15. Polinsky, A. Mitchell & Shavell, Steven, 2007. "The Theory of Public Enforcement of Law," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 403-454, Elsevier.
    16. Lars-Erik Borge & Marianne Haraldsvik, 2009. "Efficiency potential and determinants of efficiency: an analysis of the care for the elderly sector in Norway," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(4), pages 468-486, August.
    17. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, "undated". "Doing Business in Kenya 2010," World Bank Publications - Reports 13420, The World Bank Group.
    18. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    19. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    20. Erbetta, Fabrizio & Rappuoli, Luca, 2008. "Optimal scale in the Italian gas distribution industry using data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 325-336, April.
    21. Léopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2011. "Two-stage DEA: caveat emptor," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 205-218, October.
    22. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina, 2008. "Court delays and crime deterrence," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 267-290, December.
    23. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    24. Amanda Carmignani & Silvia Giacomelli, 2010. "Too many lawyers? Litigation in Italian civil courts," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 745, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    25. Daniela Marchesi, 2007. "The Rule Incentives that Rule Civil Justice," ISAE Working Papers 85, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
    26. Rajiv D. Banker & Ram Natarajan, 2008. "Evaluating Contextual Variables Affecting Productivity Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 48-58, February.
    27. Feld, Lars P. & Voigt, Stefan, 2003. "Economic growth and judicial independence: cross-country evidence using a new set of indicators," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 497-527, September.
    28. Lewin, Arie Y & Morey, Richard C & Cook, Thomas J, 1982. "Evaluating the administrative efficiency of courts," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 401-411.
    29. Wagner, Janet M. & Shimshak, Daniel G., 2007. "Stepwise selection of variables in data envelopment analysis: Procedures and managerial perspectives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(1), pages 57-67, July.
    30. Di Vita, Giuseppe, 2010. "Production of laws and delays in court decisions," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 276-281, September.
    31. Johnes, Jill, 2006. "Data envelopment analysis and its application to the measurement of efficiency in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 273-288, June.
    32. McDonald, John, 2009. "Using least squares and tobit in second stage DEA efficiency analyses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(2), pages 792-798, September.
    33. Levine, Ross, 1998. "The Legal Environment, Banks, and Long-Run Economic Growth," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(3), pages 596-613, August.
    34. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2011. "Public intervention on heritage conservation and determinants of heritage authorities’ performance: a semi-parametric analysis," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(1), pages 1-16, February.
    35. Paolo Buonanno & Matteo M. Galizzi, 2009. "Advocatus, et non latro? Testing the supplier-induced demand hypothesis for Italian courts of justice," Working Papers 0914, University of Brescia, Department of Economics.
    36. Jenkins, Larry & Anderson, Murray, 2003. "A multivariate statistical approach to reducing the number of variables in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 51-61, May.
    37. Amanda Carmignani & Silvia Giacomelli, 2009. "Italian civil justice: regional disparities," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 40, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    38. Peter Smith, 1997. "Model misspecification in Data Envelopment Analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 73(0), pages 233-252, October.
    39. Jose Manuel Cordero-Ferrera & Francisco Pedraja-Chaparro & Javier Salinas-Jimenez, 2008. "Measuring efficiency in education: an analysis of different approaches for incorporating non-discretionary inputs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(10), pages 1323-1339.
    40. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    41. Rajiv D. Banker & Richard C. Morey, 1986. "Efficiency Analysis for Exogenously Fixed Inputs and Outputs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 513-521, August.
    42. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    43. Rajiv D. Banker, 1993. "Maximum Likelihood, Consistency and Data Envelopment Analysis: A Statistical Foundation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1265-1273, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cuccia, Tiziana & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2016. "The effects of UNESCO World Heritage List inscription on tourism destinations performance in Italian regions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 494-508.
    2. Castro Massimo Finocchiaro & Guccio Calogero, 2015. "Bottlenecks or Inefficiency? An Assessment of First Instance Italian Courts’ Performance," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 317-354, July.
    3. Calogero Guccio & Giacomo Pignataro & Ilde Rizzo, 2014. "Evaluating the efficiency of public procurement contracts for cultural heritage conservation works in Italy," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 43-70, February.
    4. Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2013. "Does Unesco inscription affect the performance of tourism destinations? A regional perspective," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-04-2013, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Oct 2013.
    5. Amir Moradi-Motlagh & Ali Emrouznejad, 2022. "The origins and development of statistical approaches in non-parametric frontier models: a survey of the first two decades of scholarly literature (1998–2020)," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 713-741, November.
    6. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2016. "Research fronts in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    7. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    8. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio, 2018. "Measuring Potential Efficiency Gains from Mergers of Italian First Instance Courts through Nonparametric Model," Public Finance Review, , vol. 46(1), pages 83-116, January.
    9. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2015. "Statistical Approaches for Non-parametric Frontier Models: A Guided Tour," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 83(1), pages 77-110, April.
    10. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2014. "An assessment of the waste effects of corruption on infrastructure provision," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 813-843, August.
    11. Calogero Guccio & Marco Martorana & Isidoro Mazza & Ilde Rizzo, 2016. "Back to the Future. The effect of digital technology on the performance of public historical archives," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-10-2016, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Sep 2016.
    12. Pontus Mattsson & Jonas Månsson & Christian Andersson & Fredrik Bonander, 2018. "A bootstrapped Malmquist index applied to Swedish district courts," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 109-139, August.
    13. Essid, Hédi & Ouellette, Pierre & Vigeant, Stéphane, 2010. "Measuring efficiency of Tunisian schools in the presence of quasi-fixed inputs: A bootstrap data envelopment analysis approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 589-596, August.
    14. Sokol, Ondřej & Frýd, Lukáš, 2023. "DEA efficiency in agriculture: Measurement unit issues," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Cavalieri, M. & Guccio, C. & Lisi, D. & Pignataro, G., 2015. "Does the Extent of Per-Case Payment System Affect Hospital Efficiency? Evidence from the Italian NHS," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 15/29, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    16. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Luisa Monaco, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of the Bologna Process on the efficiency convergence of Italian universities: a non-parametric frontier approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 275-298, June.
    17. Calogero Guccio & Marco Martorana & Isidoro Mazza & Ilde Rizzo, 2021. "Back to the Future: Does the use of information and communication technology enhance the performance of public historical archives?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(1), pages 13-43, March.
    18. Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2020. "Measuring and explaining the production efficiency of Spanish universities using a non-parametric approach and a bootstrapped-truncated regression," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 825-846, February.
    19. Sinuany-Stern, Zilla, 2023. "Foundations of operations research: From linear programming to data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(3), pages 1069-1080.
    20. Bernardino Benito & José Solana & María-Rocío Moreno, 2014. "Explaining efficiency in municipal services providers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 225-239, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Civil courts efficiency; Law enforcement; Non-parametric methods; D24; K41; K49;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K49 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:ejlwec:v:38:y:2014:i:3:p:369-391. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.