Abstract:This paper revisits the 'exogenous productivity of judges' hypothesis, laid down in numerous law & economics studies based on the production-function approach. It states that judges, when confronted with growing caseload pressure, adjust their productivity upward, thereby increasing number of resolved cases. We attribute this result to assumptions regarding court productivity. In this paper, we present an alternative -the 'hockey-stick' production function model --taking into account the time constraints faced by judges. We seek to reconcile this 'production function' model with more traditional and popular approach among practitioners to court performance modelling -the use of weighted caseload methodology. We also propose extended methodology of model evaluation, taking into account its ability to reproduce empirical regularities observed in 'real world' court systems.Keywords: court efficiency, caseload management, judicial productivity, production function, weighted caseload JEL Code: H 11, H 50, K40,Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is: how wrong do they have to be to not be useful?
The goal of this paper is to empirically examine the role of Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) accompanying draft laws submitted by the Council of the Ministers as an input in purpose-oriented interpretation of tax law, carried out by Polish Administrative Courts. To this end, full-text database of the universe of Administrative Courts verdicts (CBOIS) had been queried in order to uncover all court decisions issued from Jan 1st 2001 to Dec 31st 2022 and mentioning RIAs in their written motives. All in all 14 decisions of SAC and 39 decisions of FIACs had been located – the result that can be interpreted as an evidence of scant use of RIA as an input for statutory interpretation of the tax law. Qualitative analysis reported in the paper illustrates what sort of information had been recovered by justices from RIA. Results suggest that potential offered by RIA’s coverage of ‘lawmaker’s intent’ is still not fully utilized in the process of tax law interpretation. However, any reliance on this sort of documents have to be accompanied with critical analysis of their quality and role in lawmaking process. Conditional forecasts (what impact is reasonably expected) should not be mistaken with statements of the intent (what impact is desired). Moreover, perfunctory RIA, prepared as part of window-dressing exercise, not genuine analysis underpinning the decision-making process, could turned out misleading.
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest dokonanie syntetycznego, wspartego analizą danych statystycznych, przeglądu kluczowych zagadnień związanych z obciążeniem sądów administracyjnych sprawami dotyczącymi PIT oraz ich rozpoznawaniem. Zgromadzone dane sugerują, że zgodnie ze znaczeniem fiskalnym PIT – oraz sięgającą dwudziestu milionów liczbą osób składających co roku zeznania podatkowe – skargi dotyczące podatku dochodowego od osób fizycznych pozostają relatywnie liczną grupą spraw podatkowych rozpoznawanych przez sądy administracyjne. Kwestie wydaje się potęgować częstotliwość zmian legislacyjnych, efektywnie wykluczająca bieżące zapoznawanie się podatników z tekstem normatywnym. Trzydziesta rocznica wprowadzenia PIT stanowi okazję do pogłębionego przeglądu adekwatności obecnych rozwiązań do realiów ekonomicznych i struktury rynku pracy.
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