Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Washington & Lee Law Review
Publication Date
2014
ISSN
0043-0463
Page Number
2365
Keywords
employment discrimination, regression analysis, expert witness, econometrics, Title VII, peer review
Disciplines
Labor and Employment Law | Law | Law and Gender | Law and Race
Abstract
Experts routinely criticize three aspects of regression analyses presented by the opposing party in employment discrimination cases: omitted explanatory variables, sample size, and statistical significance. However, these factors affect the reliability of the regression results only in very limited circumstances. As a result, valid regression analyses do not provide the critical guidance that they should in employment discrimination cases. Our own statistical analyses of seventy-eight Title VII employment discrimination cases find that merely raising these critiques, even if spurious, reduces plaintiffs’ likelihood of prevailing at trial. We propose that courts adopt a peer-review system in which court-appointed economists, compensated by each party as a percentage of the total payment to econometric expert witnesses, review econometric evidence before the reports are submitted to the judge or jury.
Recommended Citation
Joni Hersch and Blair Druhan Bullock,
The Use and Misuse of Econometric Evidence in Employment Discrimination Cases, 71 Washington & Lee Law Review. 2365
(2014)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/662