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The Effect of Traffic Safety Laws and Obesity Rates on Living Organ Donations

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Listed:
  • Fernandez, Jose
  • Stohr, Lisa

Abstract

This paper uses variation in traffic safety laws and obesity rates to identify substitution patterns between living and cadaveric kidney donors. Using panel data from 1988-2008, we find that a 1% decrease in the supply of cadaveric donors per 100,000 increases the supply of living donors per 100,000 by .7%. With respect to traffic safety laws, a national adoption of partial helmet laws is estimated to decrease cadaveric donors by 6%, but leads to a 4.2% increase in the number of living donors, or a net effect of 1.8% decrease in the supply of kidney donations. The recent rise in obesity rates is estimated to increase living donor rates by roughly 18%. Lastly, we find evidence that increases in disposable income per capita is associated with an increase in the number of non-biological living donors within a state, but is not found to have an effect on biological donor rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernandez, Jose & Stohr, Lisa, 2009. "The Effect of Traffic Safety Laws and Obesity Rates on Living Organ Donations," MPRA Paper 17033, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:17033
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/17033/1/MPRA_paper_17033.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. T. Randolph Beard & David L. Kaserman & Richard P. Saba, 2006. "Inefficiency in Cadaveric Organ Procurement," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(1), pages 13-26, July.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Traffic safety, obesity, and ... organ donations
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-10-09 19:32:00
    2. Does a decrease in the number of traffic fatalities increase live kidney donation?
      by Al Roth in Market Design on 2009-10-27 15:04:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Jon Diesel, 2010. "Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Organ Liberalization?," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 7(3), pages 320-336, September.

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      More about this item

      Keywords

      organ donations; fatalities; seat belt; helmet laws; altruism;
      All these keywords.

      JEL classification:

      • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
      • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
      • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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