Addressing Missingness in Serialized Bureaucratic Data: The Case of Chinese Courts

82 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2022 Last revised: 16 May 2024

See all articles by Xiaohan Wu

Xiaohan Wu

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Margaret E. Roberts

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - 21st Century China Center

Rachel E. Stern

University of California, Berkeley - Department of Jurisprudence & Social Policy; University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law

Benjamin L. Liebman

Columbia University - Law School

Amarnath Gupta

San Diego Supercomputer Center

Luke Sanford

Yale University

Date Written: May 25, 2022

Abstract

Courts around the world are putting their data online, making information about case load, parties, and decisions available to the public. Yet, this data is far from complete, and often only reflects a portion of courts’ dockets. We offer and validate a set of tools for leveraging the serialized bureaucratic data from courts to evaluate missingness and court delay. Using data from more than 3,000 courts in China, our methods allow us to assess patterns of missingness in court data across geography and by type of case and to conduct the largest quantitative analysis to date on court delay in China. Our validation allows us to provide recommendations for researchers looking to augment incomplete bureaucratic data around the world.

Keywords: courts, law, missingness

Suggested Citation

Wu, Xiaohan and Roberts, Margaret E. and Stern, Rachel E. and Liebman, Benjamin L. and Gupta, Amarnath and Sanford, Luke, Addressing Missingness in Serialized Bureaucratic Data: The Case of Chinese Courts (May 25, 2022). 21st Century China Center Research Paper No. 2022-11, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4124433 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4124433

Xiaohan Wu (Contact Author)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

9500 Gilman Drive
Mail Code 0502
La Jolla, CA 92093-0112
United States

Margaret E. Roberts

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - 21st Century China Center ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive #0519
La Jolla, CA 92093-0519
United States

Rachel E. Stern

University of California, Berkeley - Department of Jurisprudence & Social Policy ( email )

School of Law
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-2150
United States

University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law

Boalt Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States

Benjamin L. Liebman

Columbia University - Law School ( email )

435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States

Amarnath Gupta

San Diego Supercomputer Center

9500 Gilman Drive
San Diego, CA 92093
United States

Luke Sanford

Yale University

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
482
Abstract Views
1,966
Rank
126,806
PlumX Metrics