Iossa, Elisabetta and Jullien, Bruno (2012) The Market for Lawyers: On the Value of Information on the Quality of Legal Services. RAND Journal of Economics, vol. 43 (n° 4). pp. 677-705.

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Abstract

We study the functioning of the market for lawyers, considering the strategic interaction among litigants, lawyers, and judges. We investigate the value of legal representation and of systems of quality certification, such as the Queen’s Counsel system. In our setting, higher quality lawyers obtain better-quality evidence and are better able to interpret it. Judges receive information from the lawyers and have reputational concerns. We show that reputational concerns generate a decision bias in favor of certified lawyers and that this causes misallocation of lawyers at the market equilibrium. As a result, whereas a higher quality of lawyers increases welfare, public information over quality may be welfare reducing.

Item Type: Article
Language: English
Date: 2012
Refereed: Yes
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 09 Jul 2014 17:34
Last Modified: 02 Apr 2021 15:48
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:27061
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/15562

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