skip to content

Faculty of Economics

Journal Cover

Shvets, J.

Presidential control of the judiciary via the appointment of power: evidence from Russia

Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization

(2016)

Abstract: In many countries, the president is involved in appointing judges. Does this lead to selection of friendly judges who then promote the president’s interests? This question is explored here in the context of Russia, where judges are often said to favor the executive. I gather data on 2000 court cases, and analyze them by exploiting changes in the appointment rules. I find clear evidence that judges selected by the president favor the government more than do their peers. In the process, the article develops a new solution to the sample selection problem endemic to the analysis of court decisions.

JEL Codes: D02, K40, P37

Author links: Julia Shvets  

Publisher's Link: https://jleo.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/04/18/jleo.eww004.abstract?sid=8f18f1d7-800d-4a5d-8d7b-efa90659c188



Papers and Publications



Recent Publications


Bhattacharya, D., Dupas, P. and Kanaya, S. Demand and Welfare Analysis in Discrete Choice Models with Social Interactions Review of Economic Studies [2023]

Bhattacharya, D. and Shvets, J. Inferring Trade-Offs in University Admissions: Evidence from Cambridge Journal of Political Economy, accepted [2023]

Evans, R. A. and Reiche, S. K. When Is a Contrarian Adviser Optimal? American Economic Journal: Microeconomics [2023]

Carneiro, P., Liu, K. and Salvanes, K. G. The Supply of Skill and Endogenous Technical Change: Evidence from a College Expansion Reform Journal of the European Economic Association [2023]