We propose a new specification test to assess the validity of the judge leniency design. We characterize a set of sharp … judge leniency design assumptions. The proposed sharp test is asymptotically valid and consistent and will not make … discordant recommendations. When the judge's leniency design assumptions are rejected, we propose a way to salvage the model …

Does labor court uncertainty and judge subjectivity influence firms' performance? We study the economic consequences of … judge decisions by collecting information on more than 145,000 Appeal court rulings, combined with administrative firm …-level records covering the whole universe of French firms. The quasi-random assignment of judges to cases reveals that judge bias …