IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v34y2025i8p1461-1473.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Gun‐Purchase Waiting Periods Save Lives?

Author

Listed:
  • Grace E. Arnold
  • Mitchell Blaine Priestley

Abstract

We study the impact of gun‐purchase waiting periods on suicide rates using county‐level mortality data from 1991–2019. We find that waiting periods are associated with a reduction in both firearm and overall suicide rates of approximately 5% and 2%, respectively. Novelly, we find that counties that are within 50 miles from a state without a waiting period experience no statistically significant reduction in suicides. Our findings reveal that the decrease in suicides under a waiting period is driven by counties that are more than 50 miles from a non‐restricted neighboring state.

Suggested Citation

  • Grace E. Arnold & Mitchell Blaine Priestley, 2025. "Do Gun‐Purchase Waiting Periods Save Lives?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(8), pages 1461-1473, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:34:y:2025:i:8:p:1461-1473
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4970
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4970
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.4970?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:34:y:2025:i:8:p:1461-1473. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.