¿ESTÁ JUSTIFICADA LA MALA IMAGEN DE LA ADMINISTRACIÓN DE JUSTICIA ESPAÑOLA? ¿ES UN PROBLEMA DE INVERSIÓN?: UNA COMPARATIVA EUROPEA MEDIANTE EL ANÁLISIS DEA

ABSTRACT Justice is a public good. Therefore, within the core of the Public Administration, the proper functioning of the Judicial Administration is of utmost importance to society. Currently, the Spanish Judicial System is being subject to sharp criticism that qualifies it as inefficient and belated. A large social and professional sector of the Judicial Administration considers that the lack of means is the reason behind its poor functioning and so, they demand greater investment. Throughout this paper the accuracy of both assertions will be analysed: whether the Spanish Judicial Administration is inefficient and whether a greater expenditure would lead to the improvement of such public service. By applying the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology, the efficiency of the Spanish Judicial Administration is determined and compared to that of other European Judicial Administrations. Through the Tobit analysis, the DEA levels are related to the public spending. Our outcomes show that a greater expenditure effort will result into a better ranking position.