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What Do Bicycle Helmet Laws Do? Evidence From Canada

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  • Christopher S. Carpenter
  • Casey Warman

Abstract

Twenty‐one states and the District of Columbia require youths to wear helmets when riding a bicycle, and there has been a push to extend such laws to adults. We provide new evidence on helmet laws by studying Canada using difference‐in‐differences models and restricted area‐identified public health survey data with information on cycling and helmet use for nearly 800,000 individuals from 1994 to 2014. We first confirm prior patterns from the United States that laws requiring youths to wear helmets significantly increased youth helmet use. We then provide the literature's first comprehensive evidence that “all‐age” bicycle helmet laws significantly increased both adult and youth helmet use by 50%–190% relative to pre‐reform levels, with larger effects for younger adults and less‐educated adults. All‐age helmet laws had modest effects at reducing cycling and increasing in‐home exercise during winter months among adults but did not meaningfully affect weight. Overall, our findings confirm that all‐age helmet laws can be effective at increasing population helmet use without significant unintended adverse health consequences. (JEL I18, I12, K32)

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher S. Carpenter & Casey Warman, 2019. "What Do Bicycle Helmet Laws Do? Evidence From Canada," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(2), pages 832-854, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:57:y:2019:i:2:p:832-854
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12739
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher S. Carpenter & Mark Stehr, 2011. "Intended and Unintended Consequences of Youth Bicycle Helmet Laws," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 305-324.
    2. Darren Grant & Stephen M. Rutner, 2004. "The effect of bicycle helmet legislation on bicycling fatalities," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 595-611.
    3. Benjamin Hansen & Joseph J. Sabia & Daniel I. Rees, 2017. "Have Cigarette Taxes Lost Their Bite? New Estimates of the Relationship between Cigarette Taxes and Youth Smoking," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 3(1), pages 60-75, Winter.
    4. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    5. Sara Markowitz & Pinka Chatterji, 2015. "Effects Of Bicycle Helmet Laws On Children'S Injuries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 26-40, January.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law

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