Abstract

We document judicial leniency on defendant birthdays across 4.8 million decisions. Our results are consistent with reference-dependent social preferences. First, French sentences are 1% fewer and around 5% shorter. Second, U.S. federal judges also round down sentences except when rounding up makes available sentencing reductions for good behavior. No leniency appears on the days before or after a defendant's birthday.

Replaces

Daniel L. Chen, and Arnaud Philippe, “Clash of norms: Judicial leniency on defendant birthdays”, IAST Working Paper, n. 18-76, 2018.