Dynamic efficiency evaluation of Italian judicial system using DEA based Malmquist productivity indexes

The aim of this study is the empirical analysis of the Italian judicial system, measuring its efficiency and productivity. For this purpose, in details, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist indexes were used, since they are recognized by the current literature as successful techniques to evaluate the performance of decision making units, namely the courts of law in our field of application.The statistical data on the administration of justice in Italy, as reported in Dossier n. 11 May 2013, Senate Research Services, Research Office on Institutional Issues, Justice and Culture, XVII legislature, shows that the efficiency crisis of justice in Italy began in the 1970s of the last century, aggravating during the ‘80s, and reaching its most critical moment during the 1990s. Several studies emphasize the relevance of the effects of inefficiency upon the judicial system on the credit and financial markets.The present analysis, using data that covers a wide time span and is disaggregated at district level, has set the goal of measuring the efficiency of the individual Italian judicial offices while assessing the progress of productivity in its components, by the means of technological progress and scale efficiency. The efficiency analysis that was carried out transcends the aspect of judicial taxation, considering how the passage of time has impacted on judicial efficiency.Considering the judges and judicial administration employed, in the new, pending and finished cases during the years ranging from 2011 to 2016, the results highlighted a distinct heterogeneity among courts, depending on their geographical location. The five-year period that was considered, included the years in which the judicial geographical distribution reform entered into force, so to better comprehend how this complex reform influenced the recovery of efficiency of the judicial offices. Furthermore, by breaking down the index into change in efficiency and change in technology, this work offers a further glimpse into judiciary organization. The application of combined DEA method and Malmquist indexes for evaluating court efficiency in a large time frame showed very interesting and useful results, relevant for judicial administration.     

DEA-based Malmquist productivity indexes for understanding courts reform

Currently there is no clear empirical evidence as to which the most appropriate reform to improve national judicial systems might be, i.e., whether it is better to implement a policy which focuses on judges and their incentives or, alternatively, a policy aimed at reorganizing the courts' structure.The judicial system, like many other sectors of the public administration, is an industry producing a specific good – justice – and, accordingly, it can be studied by using the customary tools of production theory. The paper applies the two-stage analysis by Simar and Wilson (2007) and the Malmquist index to the judiciary, in order to better understand the impact of a specific policy on the productivity of the Italian tax judiciary.The results highlight strong heterogeneity among courts, depending on their geographical location, with North-West and North-East of Italy as the most efficient macro areas. Moreover, by decomposing the index into change in efficiency and change in technology, this work provides a further glimpse into the judiciary's production organization. Interestingly, the evidence shows that a reduction in the number of active sections has had a negative impact on the overall performance of the courts (i.e., a negative change in efficiency of 0.0103, with a p-value < 0.01), although the reorganization of the residual sections has possibly determined a more effective use of the remaining resources (i.e., a positive change in technology of 0.00285, with a p-value < 0.01). Hence, technology does not fully replace the productive role of the judges.The overall results suggest that adjudication is a labor-intensive activity and, although fine-tuning their organization can indeed enhance the productivity of the courts, the role of the judges still remains pivotal. There might indeed be ways to increase the efforts made by judges and a suitable policy should create incentives aimed at boosting their productivity.     

Governance of tax courts

This paper attempts to penetrate the “black box” of the judiciary through an empirical investigation of the Italian tax courts of first instance. Both judicial delay and two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis approach with bootstrap are used to measure the efficiency of the court system and to further identify the main determinants of efficiency which, in line with the previous literature, seem to be mostly related to the judges’ effort. The study also takes advantage of an idiosyncratic feature of this branch of the Italian judiciary—in which judges are temporarily appointed and can continue to practice an external (though not conflicting) profession—to assess the impact of opportunity costs on the behavior of judges. The overall outcome confirms that judges maximize utility “the same as everybody else does” (Posner, Supreme Court Econ Rev 3:1–41, 1993).     

我国体育仲裁司法监督模式选择

从体育仲裁的性质入手,认为体育仲裁制度契约性、准司法性和独立性的特点要求建立体育仲裁司法监督模式;司法监督有利于实现体育仲裁所追求的公正、效率的价值目标;在司法监督模式上,国内学者有着"全面监督论"和"程序监督论"两种不同的理论观点,通过对上述理论的分析,笔者认为它们之间的对立不是绝对的,两者可以在承认当事人意思自治的前提下对是否决定进行法院实体审查这一重要问题达成契合,因此体育仲裁司法监督模式应采取法院原则上不监督体育仲裁实体但允许当事人协议扩大监督权的设计,是切合我国司法制度实际的理想模式。     

Lawyers,gender and grievance arbitration outcomes

Why should the grievant’s gender or the presence of legal representation affect arbitration outcomes? The “chivalry hypothesis” holds that male arbitrators will tend to favor female grievants; its theoretical mirror image, the “evil woman” hypothesis, suggests that female grievants suffer a comparative disadvantage vis-à-vis similarly situated males. However, neither hypothesis (both drawn from criminologists’ studies of judicial sentencing patterns) applies all that well to the grievance arbitration process where, unlike in the court system, the parties themselves select their decision-maker. This is not to say that the grievance arbitration process is free of gender discrimination, only that arbitrators are probably not the source of any pro- or anti-female bias which may be uncovered.     

A Huff model with firm heterogeneity and selection. Application to the Italian retail sector

ABSTRACT

In this paper, firm heterogeneity (in terms of productivity, i.e., marginal costs) is incorporated into a Huff model of competition in the Italian retail sector. A higher market potential in the trade area is associated with higher average productivity and lower productivity dispersion through selection of the best stores. The analysis, based on a unique data set encompassing 14,212 Italian retailers, finds support for this relationship in Southern Italy, but not in Northern and Central Italy (where opposite results are obtained in some cases), suggesting the selection dynamics are affected by context factors (other than provincial/regional accessibility) related to an upper geographical scale. The results are robust to controlling for local context factors such as financial risk and floor size restrictions. Floor size restrictions are found to enhance selection.     

Felony case scheduling policies and continuances: A simulation study

The criminal justice system consists of interacting parts and represents a dynamic process through which the accused moves in stages. This study focuses on felony criminal offenses and the court stage of the judicial process. Specifically this study examines and evaluates utilization of the courtrooms of a legal system under pre-trial policy considerations governing case flow, and identifies problem areas of under-capacity, or bottlenecks. The model presented utilizes simulation as a means of describing the system, and conducting alternative (scheduling) policy requirements. The results of the study reveal that due process can be achieved while minimizing interference with those who want a “speedy trial”.     

Performance appraisals and discrimination suits: Do courts pay attention to validity?

Performance appraisals have been reviewed by courts when there is an allegation they were used in a discriminatory manner. This article evaluates several federal court cases where performance appraisals were at issue. This analysis leads to the conclusion that courts give very little direction to employers and employees as to whether a particular type of performance appraisal system will withstand judicial scrutiny.     

A system maintenance approach to analyzing the Italian judicial system reform proposal of 2010

In this paper, we analyze the Italian reform of the judicial system proposed in 2010 by using multi-state models. The transitions between states are assumed to be generated by a semi-Markov process. The introduction of the reform is considered as a general system maintenance policy. The effects of the reform are evaluated by computing the system’s transition probabilities, failure rates and odds ratios of failure rates. The introduction of a reward structure measures the impact of the reform from the point of view of costs. An example showing the possibility of implementing a real data application is presented.     

The effect of judicial independence on entrepreneurship in the US states

The relationship between institutional quality, entrepreneurship, and economic growth has been well documented within the literature. However, much less work has been done regarding judicial independence and how this affects, specifically, entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, this paper attempts to fill that gap by exploiting the differences in judicial independence that exist between the US states and empirically evaluating how this affects entrepreneurship. Overall, the results suggest that the method of selecting and retaining justices of both courts of last resort and intermediate appellate courts has a significant and direct effect on entrepreneurial activity, though the latter result is somewhat less robust. The presence of judicial nominating and retention commissions also has a significant and direct effect. Further, although somewhat weaker, the method of selecting the chief justice of a state court of last resort would also appear to have an impact on entrepreneurship. These results are robust to a number of specifications.     

从司法正义看法学教改

司法正义的实现必须从接受正规专业法学教育的人开始,司法正义的改革与法学教育有密切的联系,本文试图通过对影响司法改革的关键因素的分析,揭示法学教育如何改革以达到司法正义的逐步实现。     

Prescribed conditional interaction structure models with application to the analysis of mobility tables

The present paper considers some new models for the analysis of multidimensional contigency tables. Although the theoretical background used here appeared already in Haberman (1974), prescribed conditional interaction (PCIN) models were introduced by Rudas (1987) and their mathematical properties were worked out by Leimer and Rudas (1988). These models are defined by prescribing the values of certain conditional interactions in the contingency table. Conditional interaction is defined here as the logarithm of an appropriately defined conditional odds ratio. This conditional odds ratio is a conditional version of a generalization of the well known odds ratio of a 2×2 table and that of the three factor interaction term of a 2×2×2 table and applies to any number of dimensions and any number of categories of the variables. The well known log-linear (LL) models are special PCIN models. Estimated frequencies under PCIN models and tests of fit can be computed using existing statistical software (e.g. BMDP). The paper describes the class of PCIN models and compares it to the class of association models of Goodman (1981). As LL models are widely used in the analysis of social mobility tables, application of more general PCIN models is illustrated.     

Introduction to APPC-2018, a Special Issue of the Journal of Productivity Analysis, “Novel Applications of Efficiency and Productivity Analyses in the Asia-Pacific Region”

In this study, an appropriate nonparametric two-step approach to conditional efficiencies is used to investigate how size and time affect the performance of companies. Using a dataset of Italian manufacturing firms over the period 2006–2015, we explore the effect of size on the attainable production set (input-output space) and on the efficiency distribution, without making any a priori assumptions on the role of size on efficiency. Main findings suggest that size positively affects the efficiency of companies. By exploring the idiosyncratic efficiency, an additional empirical result from the conditional efficiency approach shows that the economic disparities between North, Centre and South of Italy not only limit the foreign investment but also seem to penalize the productivity of Italian-owned companies.

     

Characterizing the mission statements of benefit corporations: Empirical evidence from Italy

In 2015, Italy introduced a new legal form—“benefit corporation” (società benefit)—that provides legal status to companies that have one or more common benefit objectives in addition to the profit-seeking goal. Italian benefit corporations are obligated by law to operate in a responsible, sustainable, and transparent way and to include the interests of different stakeholders in their corporate strategy. This study examines the Italian case by applying textual statistical analysis on benefit corporations' public mission statements using the IRaMuTeQ software. Performing hierarchical cluster analysis and correspondence factor analysis identifies the “benefit” concept emerging from the mission statements in terms of promotion of individual skills, development of a new business model, and service to society. This study contributes to the debate on the content of mission statements by giving empirical evidence about this new form of business, and it provides some practical implications for managers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.     

SMEs’ behavior under financial constraints: An empirical investigation on the legal environment and the substitution effect with tax arrears

Considering the Italian legal environment, this work aims to shed new light on the behavior of SMEs under financial constraints, investigating how the inefficiency of courts in enforcing credit rights can affect their corporate finance. On the one hand, our results confirm previous findings on the pecking order theory, supporting the hypothesis of substitution between financial debts and trade credits. On the other hand, based on our evidence, if SMEs are affected by judicial inefficiency, we can expect their access to both the capital market and trade credit to be limited by the uncertainty of the legal environment, causing them to use tax arrears to raise internal liquidity. Indeed, if the time needed to settle insolvency cases decreases by 20%, we can expect an increase in the financial debt ratio between 1.07% and 3.87% and in the trade credit ratio between 0.14% and 1.35%, while, focusing on tax arrears, we can expect a decrease in the tax debt ratio between 0.78% and 1.61%.     

组织资源能力对税收征管绩效影响的实证分析

按价值取向将税收征管绩效分为税收征管效能和纳税服务品质,讨论组织资源能力对这二者及二者之间的相互关系。采用问卷调查法,运用描述性统计分析,信度和效度检验,验证性因子分析以及结构方程建模模型研究了组织资源能力对税收征管绩效影响,结果发现,组织资源能力对税收征管效能和纳税服务品质具有很强的正向影响,但纳税服务品质对税收征管效能的影响并不显著,且结果为负。说明在中国的国境下,组织资源能力的提高可以提升税收征管绩效,但服务品质的提高却未必能改善税收征管的成本和效益,政府应做好税务管理现代化实施过程的调控。     

Women active citizenship and wellbeing: the Italian case

The paper analyses several indicators (political participation, trade union organizations, ecological associations, voluntary and cultural activities) of active citizenship in Italy, focusing on the profiles of the activists in relation to wellbeing and gender differences. A sample of around 49,000 individuals and 19,000 families from the survey “Aspect of daily life”, collected by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in 2010 was used for the analysis. We apply multivariate statistical methods (correspondence analysis, fuzzy clustering, multidimensional scaling and regression models) to describe the sample and detect the predictors of satisfaction and trust in people.     

Tax‐loss carryforward and futures hedging

Our research is motivated by the Corn Products vs Arkansas Best Supreme court decisions that brought on the controversy of the tax treatment of gains and losses from futures hedging. The usefulness of a futures contract as risk management tool depends on the tax code. In this paper we address implications of capital treatment of futures positions (disallowing offset for tax purposes) when tax‐loss carryover is allowed. Our analysis utilizes a two‐period model to capture the inter‐temporal effects. We investigate the optimal hedge ratios under these scenarios analytically where possible, and numerically where necessary. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

有条件会计稳健性与无条件会计稳健性分析——理解稳健性的新切入点

本文认为,当前对于会计稳健性的理论分歧,主要是由于混淆了有条件的会计稳健性和无条件的会计稳健性。有条件的稳健性起源于契约中的委托代理关系,并受到诉讼、管制和税收的影响,是会计对不确定经济环境的一种谨慎反应,它能够维护契约执行、落实受托责任、缓解代理冲突,是降低代理成本的有效的制度安排。无条件的稳健性主要是因应管制和税收的需要而产生,随着经济环境的变化其存在的合理性受到质疑。有条件的会计稳健性和无条件的会计稳健性并非相互独立,而是相互联系、相互制约,无条件的稳健性比有条件的稳健性优先,但后者对前者也会产生影响。     

我国外资企业逆向避税动因及对策研究

"逆向避税"观点主要强调我国外资企业转让定价行为的非税动因。它的出现既有主观原因,又有客观原因。文章经过分析得出完善税制、抑制外资企业避税动机、构建国际税务信息网络等方法将更加有助于减少外商在我国的"逆向避税"行为。