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Potential efficiency effects of merging the Swedish district courts
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Potential efficiency effects of merging the Swedish district courts

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  • Mattsson, Pontus
  • Tidanå, Claes

Abstract

The Swedish district courts have undergone a substantial restructuring process in which the main reform has been to merge. As a result, the number of district courts has declined from 95 in 2000 to only 48 in 2009. All main arguments that support merging concern enhancements of efficiency. However, it has not yet been explicitly examined whether the mergers have the potential to increase efficiency ex ante. Thus, the expectation concerning higher efficiency was built on a subjective view. This paper investigates whether the mergers can be rationalized from a production economic point of view. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to compute a production frontier where the conducted mergers are incorporated to identify the potential ex ante gains. Furthermore, the overall potential is decomposed into learning, scale, and harmony to investigate the source of the potential gain, e.g., an effect of adjusting to best practice or a pure merging effect such as scale. The results show diverse potentials, i.e., a number of mergers did not have the potential to gain in efficiency while others could gain substantially. A conclusion based on the analysis is that the potential production economic effects should be investigated before merger decisions are made in the future. This is also likely to be true beyond the Swedish district courts.

Suggested Citation

  • Mattsson, Pontus & Tidanå, Claes, 2019. "Potential efficiency effects of merging the Swedish district courts," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 58-68.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:67:y:2019:i:c:p:58-68
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2018.09.002
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    5. Subhash C. Ray & Shilpa Sethia, 2022. "Nonparametric measurement of potential gains from mergers: an additive decomposition and application to Indian bank mergers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 115-130, April.
    6. Francesco Aiello & Graziella Bonanno & Francesco Foglia, 2021. "On The Heterogeneity In The Judicial Efficiency Literature: A Meta-Regression Analysis," Working Papers 202102, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    7. Jonas Månsson & Christian Andersson & Fredrik Bonander, 2022. "What lessons can be learned from cost efficiency? The case of Swedish district courts," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 431-451, December.
    8. Chen, Xiaoqing & Kerstens, Kristiaan & Tsionas, Mike, 2024. "Does productivity change at all in Swedish district courts? Empirical analysis focusing on horizontal mergers," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Kristiaan KERSTENS & Xiaoqing CHEN, 2022. "Evaluating Horizontal Mergers in Swedish District Courts Using Plant Capacity Concepts: With a Focus on Nonconvexity," Working Papers 2022-EQM-02, IESEG School of Management.
    10. Falavigna, G. & Ippoliti, R., 2020. "The socio-economic planning of a community nurses programme in mountain areas: A Directional Distance Function approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Chang, Tsung-Sheng & Lin, Ji-Gang & Ouenniche, Jamal, 2023. "DEA-based Nash bargaining approach to merger target selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(2), pages 930-945.
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    13. Per J. Agrell & Pontus Mattsson & Jonas Månsson, 2020. "Impacts on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 653-679, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Benchmarking; Courts; Data envelopment analysis (DEA); Economies of scale; Economies of scope; Merger analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • P41 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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