Greg Goelzhauser has posted Accountability and Judicial Performance: Evidence from Case Dispositions on the Internet. Here is the abstract:
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Does accountability affect judicial performance? Unraveling the link between accountability and performance is difficult when it comes to courts, in part because the norm against political interference with the judiciary makes it difficult to experiment with measures designed to increase accountability. In this article, I examine the connection between accountability and judicial performance using court delay data from Kansas, where seventeen judicial districts use noncompetitive retention elections while fourteen employ partisan elections. The results suggest that courts with judges who enjoy less independence dispose certain types of cases more quickly. The findings have implications for our understanding of judicial independence, judicial elections, court delay, and trial court decision making.
