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Aging and Productivity Among Judges: Some Empirical Evidence from the High Court of Australia

Author

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  • Mita Bhattacharya
  • Russell Smyth

Abstract

A number of studies have shown that productivity declines with age in a wide range of activities. Based on United States experience, it has been argued that one profession that might be an exception to this phenomenon is the judiciary. This study explores the relationship between aging and productivity for a sample of retired judges of the High Court of Australia. The High Court provides a useful test for the hypothesis that older judges are more productive because, in contrast to the United States, most, if not all, judges write their own judgments. Thus, ghostwriting does not cloud the issue of judicial productivity. The findings support the life‐cycle hypothesis, which suggests the age‐citation profile should increase, reach a peak and then decline as judges get closer to retirement. Thus, the results are consistent with the view that the productivity of judges over their working lives follows a similar pattern to other professions such as academia.

Suggested Citation

  • Mita Bhattacharya & Russell Smyth, 2001. "Aging and Productivity Among Judges: Some Empirical Evidence from the High Court of Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 199-212, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecp:v:40:y:2001:i:2:p:199-212
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8454.00122
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    Cited by:

    1. Smyth, Russell & Bhattacharya, Mita, 2003. "How fast do old judges slow down?: A life cycle study of aging and productivity in the Federal Court of Australia," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 141-164, June.
    2. Gustavo Ferro & Victoria Oubiña & Carlos A. Romero, 2019. "Benchmarking Labor Courts: an Efficiency Frontier Analysis," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4140, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    3. Grajzl, Peter & Silwal, Shikha, 2020. "Multi-court judging and judicial productivity in a career judiciary: Evidence from Nepal," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Russell Smyth & Vinod Mishra, 2014. "Academic inbreeding and research productivity and impact in Australian law schools," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 583-618, January.
    5. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2010. "Inequalities in income and education and regional economic growth in western Europe," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 44(2), pages 349-375, April.
    6. Jianmin Tang & Carolyn MacLeod, 2006. "Labour force ageing and productivity performance in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(2), pages 582-603, May.
    7. Georges A. Tanguay & Ugo Lachapelle, 2019. "Potential Impacts of Telecommuting on Transportation Behaviours, Health and Hours Worked in Québec," CIRANO Project Reports 2019rp-07, CIRANO.
    8. Russell Smyth & Vinod Mishra, 2009. "The Publication Decisions of Judges on the County Court of Victoria," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(271), pages 462-471, December.
    9. John Szmer & Robert K. Christensen & Samuel Grubbs, 2020. "What influences the influence of U.S. Courts of Appeals decisions?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 55-81, February.

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