Workplace disruptions, judge caseloads, and judge decisions: Evidence from SSA judicial corps retirements

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Shumway, Clayson; Wilson, Riley
• 署名单位: North Carolina State University; Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104573
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Social security disability; judges; peer effects; Caseloads

摘要

We exploit judge retirements from the Social Security Disability Insurance judicial corps to document how remaining judges respond to workplace disruptions. When a peer judge retires, the remaining judges see a 5 percent increase in dispositions and decisions that lasts 6 months. Institutional features of the disability appeal process allow us to estimate what happens to judge decisions when caseloads increase, holding the composition of cases fixed. Increased caseloads are accompanied by a 1 percent decrease in the judges' share of favorable decisions, suggesting 16,600 claimants in-sample were not awarded disability insurance who would have been, absent the workplace disruption. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.