Advocatus, et non latro? Testing the Supplier-Induced-Demand Hypothesis for Italian Courts of Justice

No 2010.52, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: We explore the relationship between litigation rates and the number of lawyers, in a typical supplier-induced demand (SID) frame. Drawing on an original panel dataset for the 169 Italian courts of justice between 2000 and 2007, we first document that the number of lawyers is positively correlated with different measures of litigation rate. Then, using an instrumental variables strategy we find that a 10 percent increase of lawyers over population is associated with an increase between 1.6 to 6 percent in civil litigation rates. Thus, our empirical analysis supports the SID hypothesis for the Italian lawyers: following an increase in their relative number, lawyers may exploit their informational advantage to induce clients to access to courts even when litigation is unnecessary or ineffective.

Keywords: Lawyers; Litigiosity; Causality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 K42 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Advocatus, et non Latro? Testing the Supplier-Induced Demand Hypothesis for the Italian Courts of Justice (2012)
Working Paper: Advocatus, et non latro? Testing the supplier-induced demand hypothesis for Italian courts of justice (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.52

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