Gender differences in judicial decisions under incomplete information: Evidence from child support cases
研究发现，在子女抚养费案件中，女法官判定的金额比男法官低0.18个标准差，这一差异主要源于女法官对非正规部门被告收入主张的怀疑。
We study gender differences in child support rulings by judges in cases where defendants (fathers) may work in either the formal or informal sector. Our identification strategy exploits the random assignment of cases to courts presided over by individual judges. We find that female judges award child support amounts that are 0.18 standard deviations lower than those awarded by male judges. When focusing on defendants working in the informal sector (who constitute over 70% of the cases), the gap appears to stem from female judges’ greater skepticism toward what they perceive as inflated claims by plaintiffs, influencing their beliefs about defendants’ earnings. We further explore four potential mechanisms behind the gap that also include formal cases: bias against female plaintiffs, workplace masculinization, interactions with other judge characteristics, and differences in legal objectives. We do not find conclusive statistical support for these mechanisms.