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Measuring Gender and Religious Bias in the Indian Judiciary

Author

Listed:
  • Elliott Ash
  • Sam Asher
  • Aditi Bhowmick
  • Sandeep Bhupatiraju
  • Daniel L. Chen

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Tatanya Devi
  • Christoph Goessmann
  • Paul Novosad
  • Bilal Siddiqi

Abstract

We study judicial in-group bias in Indian criminal courts, collecting data onover 80 million legal case records from 2010–2018. We exploit quasi-random assignment of judges and changes in judge cohorts to examine whether defendant outcomes are affected by being assigned to a judge with a similar religious or gender identity. We estimate tight zero effects of in-group bias. The upper end of our 95% confidence interval rejects effect sizes that are one-fifth of those in most of the prior literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Elliott Ash & Sam Asher & Aditi Bhowmick & Sandeep Bhupatiraju & Daniel L. Chen & Tatanya Devi & Christoph Goessmann & Paul Novosad & Bilal Siddiqi, 2023. "Measuring Gender and Religious Bias in the Indian Judiciary," Working Papers hal-03921979, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03921979
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03921979
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    Cited by:

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    2. Cai, Xiqian & Chen, Shuai & Cheng, Zhengquan, 2024. "The #MeToo Movement and Judges' Gender Gap in Decisions," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1453, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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