Judge and Physician Errors

Many studies have documented inconsistencies in judicial behavior. For example, federal appeals court judges become more politicized before elections and more unified during war time. Refugee asylum judges are two percentage points more likely to deny asylum to refugees if their previous decision granted asylum. Economists Daniel L. Chen and Elliott Ash will examine biases in human decision-making, focusing on judges and physicians. They will measure biases through 1) appeals and their outcomes for asylum and circuit court judges and 2) malpractice claims and their outcomes for physicians. They will explore the extent to which predictive analytics can mitigate biases in decision-making.