My dissertation studies China’s judicial system. The first essay examines how judicial independence can reduce local protectionism and foster cross-regional economic integration. Exploiting a reform that removed local governments’ control over local courts’ financial and personnel decisions and combining the universes of civil lawsuits and business registration records, I show that local defendants’ rate of winning court cases against non-local plaintiffs declined by 7.0% after the reform and the reformed localities attract 8.4% more inward external investments. In the second essay, utilizing datasets covering the universe of judges, lawyers, and court cases from 2014 to 2022, I find that revolving-door lawyers enjoy significant advan-tages in securing favorable court decisions for thei...[ Read more ]

My dissertation studies China’s judicial system. The first essay examines how judicial independence can reduce local protectionism and foster cross-regional economic integration. Exploiting a reform that removed local governments’ control over local courts’ financial and personnel decisions and combining the universes of civil lawsuits and business registration records, I show that local defendants’ rate of winning court cases against non-local plaintiffs declined by 7.0% after the reform and the reformed localities attract 8.4% more inward external investments. In the second essay, utilizing datasets covering the universe of judges, lawyers, and court cases from 2014 to 2022, I find that revolving-door lawyers enjoy significant advan-tages in securing favorable court decisions for their clients. Positive sorting between judge-turned lawyers and their clients could lead to a judiciary that systematically favors the rich over the poor. The third essay investigates the ethnic disparity in criminal sentencing. Minorities receive significantly harsher penalties than the Chinese Han. Exploiting a sentencing guideline reform that limits judges’ discretion, the disparities shrank significantly in reformed regions.