IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1982.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Endogenous Drinking Age Laws and Highway Mortality Rates of Young Drivers

Author

Listed:
  • Henry Saffer
  • Michael Grossman

Abstract

This paper presents estimates of the effects of the drinking age and beer taxes on youth motor vehicle mortality. The data set employed is a time series, from 1975 to 1981, of cross sections of the 48 contiguous states. Separate regressions for 15 to 11 year olds, 18 to 20 year olds and 21 to 24 year olds are presented. A simultaneous estimation model is used to account for the endogeneity .of the drinking age. The results show that during the sample period an increase in the drinking age to 21, which is approximately 8 percent, would have reduced mortality in the 18 to 20 year old group by approximately 14 percent. Also a 100 percent increase in the real beer tax, which is approximately $1.50 per case, would reduce highway mortality of 18 to 20 year olds by about 19 percent. This increase in the beer tax would also reduce mortality by about 8 percent for 15 to 17 year olds and by about 18 percent for the 21 to 24 year olds.

Suggested Citation

  • Henry Saffer & Michael Grossman, 1986. "Endogenous Drinking Age Laws and Highway Mortality Rates of Young Drivers," NBER Working Papers 1982, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1982
    Note: EH PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1982.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amemiya, Takeshi, 1979. "The Estimation of a Simultaneous-Equation Tobit Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 20(1), pages 169-181, February.
    2. Dennis C. McCornac, 1982. "The Effects of Government Regulation on Teenage Motor Vehicle Mortality," NBER Working Papers 1030, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Peltzman, Sam, 1975. "The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(4), pages 677-725, August.
    4. Coate, Douglas & Grossman, Michael, 1988. "Effects of Alcoholic Beverage Prices and Legal Drinking Ages on Youth Alcohol Use," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 145-171, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernd Frick & Anica Rose, 2017. "Over the top: Team composition and performance in Himalayan expeditions," Working Papers Dissertations 24, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    2. Vijetha Koppa, 2018. "The Effect of Alcohol Access on Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Evidence From the Minimum Legal Drinking Age," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 164-184, Spring.
    3. Robert S. Chirinko & Edward P. Harper, 1993. "Buckle up or slow down? New estimates of offsetting behavior and their implications for automobile safety regulation," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 270-296.
    4. Jan Eeckhout & Nicola Persico & Petra E. Todd, 2010. "A Theory of Optimal Random Crackdowns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1104-1135, June.
    5. McCarthy, Patrick, 1999. "Motor vehicle safety and alcohol availability," Transportation Research Forum Proceedings 1990s 311990, Transportation Research Forum.
    6. Dirk W. Early, 1998. "The role of subsidized housing in reducing homelessness: An empirical investigation using micro-data," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 687-696.
    7. Maria Luisa Mancusi & Andrea Vezzulli & Serena Frazzoni & Zeno Rotondi & Maurizio Sobrero, 2018. "Export and Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises: The Role of Concentrated Bank Borrowing," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(337), pages 177-204, January.
    8. Pål Andreas Pedersen, 2001. "A Game Theoretical Approach to Road Safety," Studies in Economics 0105, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    9. Joseph J. Doyle & Steven D. Levitt, 2010. "Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Child Safety Seats And Seat Belts In Protecting Children From Injury," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(3), pages 521-536, July.
    10. Hoy, Michael & Polborn, Mattias K., 2015. "The value of technology improvements in games with externalities: A fresh look at offsetting behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 12-20.
    11. Robert E. Hoyt & David B. Mustard & Lars S. Powell, 2005. "The Effectiveness of Insurance Fraud Statutues: Evidence from Automobile Insurance," Risk and Insurance 0501001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Yaoyao Wang & Yuanpei Kuang, 2023. "Evaluation, Regional Disparities and Driving Mechanisms of High-Quality Agricultural Development in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Younghwan Song, 2007. "The working spouse penalty/premium and married women’s labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 279-304, September.
    14. 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.
    15. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & López-Valpuesta, Lourdes & Pedregal, Diego J., 2019. "From legislation to compliance: The power of traffic law enforcement for the case study of Spain," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-9.
    16. Eberhard Feess, 2015. "On the interplay of public and private law enforcement with multiple victims," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 79-95, February.
    17. Bidisha Mandal & Brian Roe & Sara Fein, 2014. "Work and breastfeeding decisions are jointly determined for higher socioeconomic status US mothers," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 237-257, June.
    18. Mark R. Jacobsen, 2012. "Fuel Economy and Safety: The Influences of Vehicle Class and Driver Behavior," NBER Working Papers 18012, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Vereeck, Lode & Vrolix, Klara, 2007. "The social willingness to comply with the law: The effect of social attitudes on traffic fatalities," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 385-408, December.
    20. Jean Pinquet & Georges Dionne & Charles Vanasse & Mathieu Maurice, 2007. "Point-record incentives, asymmetric information and dynamic data," Working Papers hal-00243056, HAL.

    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:nbr:nberwo:1982. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.