IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mhr/jinste/urnsici0932-4569(200703)1631_167habibj_2.0.tx_2-o.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heuristics and Biases in Bankruptcy Judges

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey J. Rachlinski
  • Chris Guthrie
  • Andrew J. Wistrich

Abstract

Do specialized judges make better decisions than judges who are generalists? Specialized judges surely come to know their area of law well, but specialization might also allow judges to develop better, more reliable ways of assessing cases. We assessed this question by presenting a group of specialized judges with a set of hypothetical cases designed to elicit a reliance on common heuristics that can lead judges to make poor decisions. Although the judges resisted the influence of some of these heuristics, they also expressed a clear vulnerability to others. These results suggest that specialization does not produce better judgment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey J. Rachlinski & Chris Guthrie & Andrew J. Wistrich, 2007. "Heuristics and Biases in Bankruptcy Judges," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 163(1), pages 167-186, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(200703)163:1_167:habibj_2.0.tx_2-o
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/heuristics-and-biases-in-bankruptcy-judges-101628093245607780181865
    Download Restriction: Fulltext access is included for subscribers to the printed version.
    ---><---

    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. Anderson, John C. & Lowe, D. Jordan & Reckers, Philip M. J., 1993. "Evaluation of auditor decisions: Hindsight bias effects and the expectation gap," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 711-737, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aimone, Jason A. & Hudja, Stanton & Law, Wilson & North, Charles M. & Ralston, Jason & Rentschler, Lucas, 2023. "An experimental exploration of reasonable doubt," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 873-886.
    2. Régis Blazy & Bertrand Chopard & Eric Langlais & Ydriss Ziane, 2013. "Personal Bankruptcy Law, Fresh Starts, and Judicial Practice," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 169(4), pages 680-702, December.
    3. Yun‐chien Chang & Theodore Eisenberg & Han‐Wei Ho & Martin T. Wells, 2015. "Pain and Suffering Damages in Wrongful Death Cases: An Empirical Study," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 128-160, March.
    4. Eric Langlais, 2008. "Cognitive dissonance, risk aversion and the pretrial negotiation impasse," Cahiers du CEREFIGE 0806, CEREFIGE (Centre Europeen de Recherche en Economie Financiere et Gestion des Entreprises), Universite de Lorraine, revised 2008.
    5. Eric Langlais, 2008. "Asymmetric information, self-serving bias and the pretrial negotiation impasse," EconomiX Working Papers 2008-30, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    6. Deffains, Bruno & Langlais, Eric, 2008. "Legal Interpretative Process and Litigants’ Cognitive Biases," MPRA Paper 14370, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Chang, Yun-chien & Chen, Kong-Pin & Liao, Jen-Che & Lin, Chang-Ching, 2023. "Ask more, awarded more: Evidence from Taiwan’s courts," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Régis Blazy & Bertrand Chopard & Agnès Fimayer & Jean-Daniel Guigou, 2007. "Financial versus Social Efficiency of Corporate Bankruptcy Law: the French Dilemma?," LSF Research Working Paper Series 07-02, Luxembourg School of Finance, University of Luxembourg.
    9. Christoph Engel & Urs Schweizer, 2007. "Editorial Preface," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 163(1), pages 1-4, March.
    10. Eric LANGLAIS, 2010. "An Analysis Of Bounded Rationality In Judicial Litigations The Case With Loss Disappointment Averse Plaintiffs," Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics, ASERS Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 42-50.
    11. Eric Langlais, 2008. "Le "risque judiciaire" et les licenciements en France: le point de vue de l’économie du risque," Working Papers hal-04140724, HAL.
    12. Chopard, Bertrand & Langlais, Eric, 2007. "Renégociation stratégique de la dette, risque comptable et risque juridique [Strategic Bankruptcy with accountable and judicial risks]," MPRA Paper 4805, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Blazy, Régis & Chopard, Bertrand & Fimayer, Agnès & Guigou, Jean-Daniel, 2011. "Employment preservation vs. creditors' repayment under bankruptcy law: The French dilemma?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 126-141, June.

    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. Klaus Ruhnke & Catharina Schmiele & Jochen Schwind, 2010. "Die Erwartungslücke als permanentes Phänomen der Abschlussprüfung — Definitionsansatz, empirische Untersuchung und Schlussfolgerungen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 394-421, June.
    2. Mitchell Bryce & Muhammad Jahangir Ali & Paul R. Mather, 2021. "Director expectations gap and hindsight bias," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 2965-2996, June.
    3. Ricchiute, David N., 1997. "Effects of Judgment on Memory: Experiments in Recognition Bias and Process Dissociation in a Professional Judgment Task," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 27-39, April.
    4. Charron, Kimberly F. & Lowe, D. Jordan, 2008. "An examination of the influence of surprise on judges and jurors’ outcome effects," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1020-1033.
    5. Ping Zhang, 2007. "The Impact of the Public's Expectations of Auditors on Audit Quality and Auditing Standards Compliance," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 631-654, June.
    6. Mohammed Moin Uddin Reza & Md. Rezaul Karim, 2018. "Audit Expectation Gap – Evidence in 21st Century," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 2(4), pages 748-756.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K35 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Personal Bankruptcy Law
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process

    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:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(200703)163:1_167:habibj_2.0.tx_2-o. 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: Thomas Wolpert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/jite .

    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.