Are Judges Overpaid?: A Skeptical Response to the Judicial Salary Debate
74 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2007 Last revised: 19 Mar 2009
There are 2 versions of this paper
Are Judges Overpaid?: A Skeptical Response to the Judicial Salary Debate
Are Judges Overpaid? A Skeptical Response to the Judicial Salary Debate
Date Written: December 2007
Abstract
Nearly everyone thinks that judges are underpaid, but theory and evidence provide little support for this view. Theory suggests that increasing judicial salaries will improve judicial performance only if judges can be sanctioned for performing inadequately or if the appointments process reliably screens out low-ability candidates. However, federal judges and many state judges cannot be sanctioned, and the reliability of screening processes is open to question. An empirical study of the high court judges of the 50 states provides little evidence that raising salaries would improve judicial performance. The case for a pay raise has not been made.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Stephen B. Bright and Patrick Keenan
-
Judicial Independence and Minority Interests
By Daniel Berkowitz, Chris W. Bonneau, ...
-
"Additional Evidence" under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: The Need for Rigor
By Andrey Krahmal, Perry Zirkel, ...
-
Space, Place and Speech: The Expressive Topography
By Timothy Zick
-
Space, Place and Speech: The Expressive Topography
By Timothy Zick
-
Comparing Judicial Compensation: Apples, Oranges, and Cherry-Picking
By Reed Watson and Matthew W. Wolfe
-
Elitism, Expediency and the New Certiorari: Requiem for the Learned Hand Tradition
-
Judicial Compensation and the Definition of Judicial Power in the Early Republic
-
Judicial Independence and Retention Elections
By Brandice Canes-wrone, Tom S. Clark, ...