Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2023
Publication Title
Environment and Development Economics
Abstract
High temperatures have been shown to affect human cognition and decision-making in a variety of settings. In this paper, we explore the extent to which higher temperatures affect judicial decision-making in India. We use data on judicial decisions from the Indian eCourt platform, merged with high-resolution gridded daily weather data. We estimate causal effects by leveraging a fixed effects framework. We find that high daily maximum temperatures raise the likelihood of convictions and these results are robust to numerous controls and specifications. Our findings contribute to a growing literature that documents that the negative impacts of rising temperatures are often more severe in low- and middle-income countries.
Keywords
: Temperature, Climate Change, Judicial Decisions, Convictions, India
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.
Recommended Citation
Craigie, Terry Ann; Taraz, Vis; and Zapryanova, Mariyana, "Temperature and Convictions: Evidence from India" (2023). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/105
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.
Article forthcoming in Environment and Development Economics.