We estimate the productivity effects of labor specialization using a judicial environment that offers a quasi-experimental setting well suited to this purpose. Judges in this environment are randomly assigned many different types of cases. This assignment generates random streaks of same-type cases, which creates minispecialization events unrelated to the characteristics of judges or cases. We estimate that when judges receive more cases of a certain type, they become faster, that is, more likely to close cases of that type in any one of the corresponding hearings. Quality, as measured by probability of an appeal, is not negatively affected.

中文翻译：

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衡量劳工专业化带来的收益

我们使用司法环境估算劳动力专业化的生产率效应，该司法环境提供了非常适合此目的的准实验环境。在这种环境下，法官被随机分配到许多不同类型的案件中。这种分配会产生相同类型案件的随机条纹，从而产生与法官或案件特征无关的小型化事件。我们估计，当法官收到更多特定类型的案件时，他们会变得更快，也就是说，在任何相应的听证会中更可能结案该类型的案件。通过上诉的可能性衡量的质量不会受到负面影响。