Petra E. Todd, University of Pennsylvania

Presentation Title: I'll Be Watching You: The Effects of Randomly Assigned NYC Immigration Court Observers

About the Presentation

Legal representation is essential for noncitizens seeking relief in U.S. immigration courts, yet the federal government does not provide counsel. This paper presents findings from a randomized controlled trial in which law students were assigned to observe immigration judges presiding over removal hearings. We investigate the extent to which an observer’s presence and the message communicated by the observer to the judge influence whether a respondent seeks and secures legal representation. The results show that judicial observation significantly increases the likelihood that judges adjourn initial hearings to give respondents time to secure counsel and increases the likelihood that respondents are represented by an attorney in later hearings. Importantly, we document substantial heterogeneity across judges in their baseline propensity to grant continuances and show that this variation shapes how judges respond to being observed.
 

About the Speaker

Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Economics
Chair, Department of Economics

Professor Todd is also a Research Associate of Penn’s Population Studies Center, NBER, and IZA.  She serves on the editorial board of the International Economic Review and the Econometrics Journal.  She is a fellow of the Econometrics Society and of the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE).  

Her main fields of research are social program evaluation, labor economics, and microeconometrics. She has published papers on econometric methods for evaluating the effects of program/policy interventions, the determinants of cognitive achievement, testing for discrimination in motor vehicle searches, sources of racial and gender labor market disparities, pension program design and on conditional cash transfer programs.
 

Seminar Format

Location IN PERSON: 2208 LeFrak Hall. We are requesting advanced registration so that we can track capacity.  Please use this link to RSVP for in-person attendance.

Location ONLINE VIA ZOOM: Zoom registration link.  Upon registration, you will receive an automatically generated email with the direct link for the seminar

If accommodations are needed, please send request to meeting organizer (mprc-support@umd.edu) at least 72 hours prior to the event, if possible, to allow time to discuss and implement alternatives.

COVID-19 Information

MPRC public events for Spring 2026 will be a mix of in person and online via Zoom.  For in person events, all event attendees must follow current protocols.