The congestion vortex: Empirical evidence of the adverse effects of delay on workload in court systems

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Azaria, Shany; Shamir, Noam
• 署名单位: Tel Aviv University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1177/10591478261474396
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: time; EFFICIENCY; JUSTICE; IMPACT; output

摘要

This article presents a methodological approach that employs empirical analysis to investigate the adverse operational effects of congestion within a court system setting. Central to this study is the premise that prolonged lead time generates additional tasks, consequently increasing congestion by consuming additional processing resources, a phenomenon we term the congestion vortex. To explore this subject, we leverage a large-scale rich dataset from the Israeli court system which provides a comprehensive map of case-related judicial tasks in all civil cases in the system for more than 7 years. We also utilize two instrumental variables, exogenous shocks to the system, to mitigate potential reverse causality between judges' effort and lead time. Our results indicate that the longer a case lingers in the system, the greater the judicial workload it creates, in terms of invested effort in producing judicial decisions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that extended lead time increases the likelihood of a case concluding with a judgment on its merits, further escalating judicial effort.