*** District courts, terminations, and opinions *** Study for: *** USING COURT RECORDS FOR RESEARCH, TEACHING, AND POLICYMAKING: *** THE CIVIL RIGHTS LITIGATION CLEARINGHOUSE *** Margo Schlanger *** Date: 9/10/2006 *** FIRST, CREATE SUMMARY FILE clear set mem 50m cd "H:\Articles-Projects\Court Records\Opinion and termination study\" use "westlaw3.dta", clear gen published = 0 replace published = 1 if reported == "F.Supp.2d" replace published = 1 if reported == "B.R." replace published = 1 if reported == "F.R.D." replace published = 1 if reported == "Guam" replace published = 1 if reported == "Vet.App." drop if fiscal_y ~= 2004 drop original - origina2 date fiscal_y publishe reported collapse (sum) published (count) opinions=published, by (district) merge district using "H:\Articles-Projects\Court Records\Opinion and termination study\districtdata.dta", unique sort drop if district == "Bkrtcy.D.N.J." drop if district == "Bkrtcy.E.D.Va." drop if district == "Bkrtcy.S.D.N.Y." *** NOW THE ANALYSIS gen op_pct = opinions/terminat gen unpub = opinions - published gen pub_pct = published/opinions label variable published "Officially published opinions" label variable opinions "Opinions in Westlaw" label variable civil "Civil terminations" label variable criminal "Criminal terminations" label variable terminat "All civil and criminal terminations" label variable pub_pct "published opinions, percentage of all opinions" label variable op_pct "all opinions, percentage of terminations" drop if district == "CIT" | district == "Guam Terr." drop if district == "Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit." | district == "Terr.V.I." | district == "Vet.App." drop _merge histogram op_pct, width(.05) start(0) frequency /* */ fcolor(gs5) lcolor(none) lwidth(none) /* */ addlabels addlabopts(mlabsize(medium)) /* */ ytitle("Number of districts" " ", size(large)) /* */ xtitle(" " "Opinions as proportion of all terminations", size(large)) /* */ scheme(s1mono) graphregion(fcolor(none) ifcolor(none)) graph save opinions_pct_terminations, replace graph export opinions_pct_terminations.emf, fontface("Times New Roman") replace *** HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE OUTLIERS egen total_op = total(opinions) egen total_term = total(terminat) sort op_pct gen op_cont = opinions/total_op gen term_cont = terminat/total_term gen op_cum = sum(op_cont) gen term_cum = sum(term_cont) label variable op_cont "district's contribution to total opinions" label variable term_cont "district's contribution to total terminations" label variable op_cum "running sum of contribution to total opinions" label variable term_cum "running sum of contribution to total terminations" *** NOW THE DATA HAS THE RESULTS REPORTED IN TEXT. save "opinions_and_terminations_results.dta", replace