An Efficiency Analysis of Conciliation Activities in French Courts

This paper considers a DEA bad-output framework to assess the efficiency of court settlement activities and examine how efficiency depends on both the characteristics of the conciliators and institutional factors. The empirical analysis relies on court level data of conciliation activities in French civil magistrate courts between 2010 and 2017. Results show that efficiency is positively related to factors that foster the demand for settlement, as well as trial delay and judges' caseload. The most efficient courts are more prone to include conciliation in the judicial circuit. Besides, the professional background and previous experience of conciliators are positively related to efficiency.