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Does gender diversity in panels of judges matter? Evidence from French child support cases

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  • Bourreau-Dubois, Cécile
  • Doriat-Duban, Myriam
  • Jeandidier, Bruno
  • Ray, Jean-Claude

Abstract

In this article, we examine whether and to what extent the gender composition of a panel of three judges may have an impact on its decision in a civil law system characterized by a very large representation of females among judges. From a database of 2000 decisions from French Courts of Appeal, we show that the gender composition of panels of judges have a significant effect on the amounts of child support. More specifically, our results show that panels composed of three female judges set higher child support amounts than mixed panels, regardless of the gender of the creditor. In addition, the diminishing effect of the panel’s gender mix is particularly pronounced when the creditor is a man and the mixed panel is composed of two women and one man.

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  • Bourreau-Dubois, Cécile & Doriat-Duban, Myriam & Jeandidier, Bruno & Ray, Jean-Claude, 2020. "Does gender diversity in panels of judges matter? Evidence from French child support cases," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s0144818820301423
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2020.105929
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christina L. Boyd & Lee Epstein & Andrew D. Martin, 2010. "Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 389-411, April.
    2. Adam N. Glynn & Maya Sen, 2015. "Identifying Judicial Empathy: Does Having Daughters Cause Judges to Rule for Women's Issues?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(1), pages 37-54, January.
    3. Claire S.H. Lim & Bernardo S. Silveira & James M. Snyder, 2016. "Do Judges’ Characteristics Matter? Ethnicity, Gender, and Partisanship in Texas State Trial Courts," American Law and Economics Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 302-357.
    4. repec:oup:alecon:v:18:y:2016:i:2:p:302-357. is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Arnaud Philippe, 2020. "Gender Disparities in Sentencing," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(348), pages 1037-1077, October.
    6. Max Schanzenbach, 2005. "Racial and Sex Disparities in Prison Sentences: The Effect of District-Level Judicial Demographics," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 57-92, January.
    7. Cécile Bourreau-Dubois & Myriam Doriat-Duban & Jean-Claude Ray, 2014. "Child support order: how do judges decide without guidelines? Evidence from France," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 431-452, December.
    8. Sean Farhang, 2004. "Institutional Dynamics on the U.S. Court of Appeals: Minority Representation Under Panel Decision Making," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 299-330, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Grolleau, Gilles & Mungan, Murat C. & Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2022. "Seemingly irrelevant information? The impact of legal team size on third party perceptions," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Melcarne, Alessandro & Monnery, Benjamin & Wolff, François-Charles, 2022. "Prosecutors, judges and sentencing disparities: Evidence from traffic offenses in France," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Andrzej Baranski & D.J. da Cunha Batista Geraldes & Ada Kovaliukaite & James Tremewan, 2021. "Experiment on Gender Representation in Majoritarian Bargaining," Working Papers 2102, Utrecht School of Economics.
    4. repec:hal:journl:hal-03680153 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Divorce; Child support; Gender; Panel; Decision-Making; Judge;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K15 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Civil Law; Common Law
    • K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law

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