Benchmarking Labor Courts: An Efficiency Frontier Analysis

OUBIÑA, VICTORIA; FERRO, GUSTAVO; ROMERO, CARLOS A.

International Journal for Court Administration

International Association for Court Administration

Año: 2020 vol. 11 p. 2 - 21

1852-0022

We aim to determine the average efficiency levels of the Argentine Labor Courtsand their individual behavior with respect to the average. We also seek to establish the determinants of the relative efficiency levels of those courts. In so doing, we estimate a Data Envelopment Analysis efficiency frontier, and then analyze the efficiency score drivers and the Judiciary career incentives. Our sample comprises 80 courts during the period 2006?2012. Our findings show high levels of efficiency on average. Nonetheless, there is 9?12 percent room for improvement in the output with the same inputs on average, whether considering variable or constant returns, respectively. The efficiency results take caseloads and backlog into account. Given that no measure of capital input is used, this is a short-run analysis. The analysis of the efficiency scores with respect to its determinants shows that more variables, outside our sample, can help explain the variance in the scores.