Andrea Ichino, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, Josef Zweimüller, Guido Schwerdt
All good things must come to an end, including our careers (Ichino et al. 2007). In the case of judges, that end can be delayed perhaps too long, as we saw in 2020 with the disruptive and untimely death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and as documented in an increasing number of articles about the problem of extreme old age (Lat 2011, Goldstein 2011, Kase 2017) and even dementia (ProPublica 2011) in the federal courts.
What policies can or should be introduced to address the issue of old age in the judiciary? In response to such concerns, many US states have introduced mandatory retirement rules for judges. Thirty-three states have imposed a maximum age of 70, 72, 75, or even 90 (in Vermont). These policies tend to remove judges before they show signs of old-age dementia.
Just after the Civil War, two innovators found a successful formula. Johns Hopkins and Cornell made key reforms that started attracting the best research talent and the large sums of money needed to keep it.
Today, reformers would like to tweak practices like tenure that helped create this virtuous circle. But Urquiola says they should keep a few important tradeoffs in mind.
Urquiola recently spoke with the AEA’s Tyler Smith about the history of the US university system and what today s education policymakers can learn from it.
The edited highlights of that conversation are below, and the full interview can be heard using the podcast player below.
How US replaced Europe as Nobel Prize magnet
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General view of the Blue Hall, with the Table of Honour (C), during the 2015 Nobel prize award banquet in Stockholm City Hall.
(FILE PHOTO: REUTERS)
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In the early 20th century, Nobel laureates were most likely to have German or French academic history. Today, the US dominates the CVs of scholars who win the coveted prize. What has changed in a hundred years?
A study by W. Bentley MacLeod and Miguel Urquiola of Columbia University describes how several higher education reforms in the US led to increased competition and revolutionized the quality of research.