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American Law and Economics Review 2005 7(2):379-402; doi:10.1093/aler/ahi016
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Law and Economics Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

What Do Prosecutors Maximize? Evidence from the Careers of U.S. Attorneys

Richard T. Boylan

Rice University

Send correspondence to: Richard T. Boylan, Rice University, department of Economics, 6100 South Main Street, Houston, TX 77005-1892; E-mail: rboylan{at}rice.edu.

This study examines the performance of chief federal prosecutors (U.S. attorneys) and their subsequent careers. In a sample of 570 attorneys in office from 1969 to 2000, the length of prison sentences is positively related to subsequent favorable career outcomes for U.S. attorneys. In contrast, conviction rates do not appear to affect the careers of U.S. attorneys. These results are consistent with longer total prison sentences’ being personally beneficial to prosecutors, and prosecutors’ maximizing the length of prison sentences. Overall, the results suggest that sentence length, as opposed to convictions rates, is the relevant performance metric.


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