Judicial Independence and Development: Evidence from Pakistan
Abstract: This paper provides causal evidence that Presidential appointment of judges considerably impacts judicial independence, decision quality, and economic development in Pakistan. We find that when the judge selection procedure changed from Presidential appointment to appointment by judge peers, rulings in favor of the government decreased significantly. We show that this reduction reflects an improvement in the quality of judicial decisions and development outcomes. The age structure of judges at the time of the reform and the mandatory retirement age law provide us with an exogenous source of variation in the implementation of the reform. We test for and find evidence against potential threats to identification and alternative explanations for our findings. The analysis of mechanisms reveals that our results are explained by rulings in politically salient cases and by “patronage” judges who hold political office prior to their appointments.
