Global Workshop onDevelopment Impact Evaluation

in Finance and Private SectorRio de Janeiro, June 6-10, 2011

The Speed of JusticeDakar Regional Court, Senegal

Florence KondylisMamadou LoMandiogou NdiayeMattea SteinSouleymane Teliko

Impact Evaluation Concept Note

Background

Assumption: The speed of justice affects demand for legal resolution of business

disputes the business climate

Problem: No evidence on how to increase speed of

justice No direct evidence on what this impact

is at the firm levelThe Reform Unit of the MoJ in

Senegal is working with DIME to get answers

Intervention Summary

Treatment Delay Reminders Increase salience of information on treatment delays

for the various actors <<>> identified bottlenecks▪ President of chambers▪ Pre-trial Judges▪ Clerks (greffiers)

Increase treatment speedMeasure impact of variation in speed at the firm level

Does it work at scale (when all cases are subject to reminder pop-ups?)Test on larger set of cases (Commercial and Civil)

using regression discontinuity design (RDD)

Evaluation Questions

Can a simple personnel economics intervention increase the speed of justice? Why? [Perception of increased scrutiny vs. planning tool, etc]▪ Run qualitative judge interviews before/after roll out to try to get at the

channels of impact▪ [Testing impact of paper-based version of the same intervention would be

the “ideal” test. Not feasible: too few judges.] Can a decrease in treatment delays have an impact at the

firm level? Survival of the firm Decision to invest, employ, expand Perception of justice system and demand for legal resolution of

business disputes (through series of hypothetical situations) What is the potential for this type of interventions to

improve the business climate?

Evaluation Design

Unit of intervention: Court case (Total: 1,800)

Random assignment: 900 treated: appear in pop-up windows 900 control: do not appear in any pop-up

windowsCourt actors received pop-ups:

All president of chambers (manage judges)

All pre-trial judges All clerks▪ Only cases they are in charge of appear

in their pop-ups

Pop-Up Chambre President 1/2

Pop-Up Chambre President 2/2

Pop-Up Clerk 1/2

Pop-Up Clerk 2/2

Pop-Up Pre-trial Judge 1/2

Pop-Up Pre-trial Judge 2/2

Sampling and Data

Court-level data: Administrative data collected directly through the

court software (all agents enter the various treatment steps into an interface)▪ Date of entry and dates of various steps entered >>

compute duration and speed▪ Identify firms for tracking in the firm-level survey

Firm-level data: 2 planned rounds of survey collection▪ One at the outset▪ One 1 year later

Issue of censoring: not all cases will be completed over the period of the trial >> use duration models

Thank you!