Ulrika Ahrsjö

We explore the role of identity along multiple dimensions in high-stakes decision-making. Our data contain information about demographic and socioeconomic indicators for defendants and randomly assigned jurors in a Swedish court. Our results show that defendants are 4 to 6 percent less likely to get a prison sentence if judged by one more juror belonging to the same identity-forming group. Moreover, they are given 10 percent shorter prison sentences. Socioeconomic background and demographic attributes are equally important for identity effects, and these effects stem from trials of longer duration and where the defendant is present in the courtroom.

This project contains all code used to conduct the empirical analysis of the paper Identity in Court Decision-Making by Ahrsjo, Niknami and Palme. Additionally, we describe and provide information about access to a data set created from court documents from the Stockholm District Court.Abstract: We explore the role of identity along multiple dimensions in high-stakes decision-making. Our data contain information about demographic and socioeconomic indicators for defendants and randomly assigned jurors in a Swedish court. Our results show that defendants are four to six percent less likely to get a prison sentence if judged by one more juror belonging to the same identity-forming group. Moreover, they are given ten percent shorter prison sentences. Socioeconomic background and demographic attributes are equally important for identity effects, and these effects stem from trials of longer duration and where the defendant is present in the courtroom.

Using harmonized administrative data from Scandinavia, we find that intergenerational rank associations in income have increased uniformly across Sweden, Denmark, and Norway for cohorts born between 1951 and 1979. Splitting these trends by gender, we find that father-son mobility has been stable, while family correlations for mothers and daughters trend upwards. Similar patterns appear in US survey data, albeit with slightly different timing. Finally, based on evidence from records on occupations and educational attainments, we argue that the observed decline in intergenerational mobility is consistent with female skills becoming increasingly valued in the labor market.