IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/umc/wpaper/1119.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Traffic Tickets Reduce Motor Vehicle Accidents? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Author

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of traffic tickets on motor vehicle accidents. OLS estimates may be upward-biased because police officers tend to focus on areas where and periods when there is heavy traffic and thus higher rates of accidents. This paper exploits the dramatic increase in tickets during the Click-it-or-Ticket campaign to identify the causal impact of tickets on accidents using data from Massachusetts. I find that tickets significantly reduce accidents and non-fatal injuries. However, there is limited evidence that tickets lead to fewer fatalities. I provide suggestive evidence that tickets have a larger impact at night and on female drivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Dara N. Lee, 2011. "Do Traffic Tickets Reduce Motor Vehicle Accidents? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Working Papers 1119, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 17 Jan 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:1119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LZ15DicEJXuCUWlbMtFNDusJjYU4sSU0/view?usp=sharing
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kate Antonovics & Brian G. Knight, 2009. "A New Look at Racial Profiling: Evidence from the Boston Police Department," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(1), pages 163-177, February.
    2. Jeffrey A. Miron & Elina Tetelbaum, 2009. "Does The Minimum Legal Drinking Age Save Lives?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(2), pages 317-336, April.
    3. Dills, Angela K., 2010. "Social host liability for minors and underage drunk-driving accidents," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 241-249, March.
    4. Anbarci, Nejat & Lee, Jungmin, 2008. "Speed Discounting and Racial Disparities: Evidence from Speeding Tickets in Boston," IZA Discussion Papers 3903, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Michael D. Makowsky & Thomas Stratmann, 2009. "Political Economy at Any Speed: What Determines Traffic Citations?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 509-527, March.
    6. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Stehr, Mark, 2008. "The effects of mandatory seatbelt laws on seatbelt use, motor vehicle fatalities, and crash-related injuries among youths," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 642-662, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ben Brewer, 2020. "Click it or give it: Increased seat belt law enforcement and organ donation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(11), pages 1400-1421, November.
    2. Kristin Mammen & Hyoung Suk Shim & Bryan S. Weber, 2020. "Vision Zero: Speed Limit Reduction and Traffic Injury Prevention in New York City," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 282-300, April.
    3. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Rekers, Ramona, 2022. "Speed limit enforcement and road safety," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    4. Chiara Berneri & Shaun Larcom & Congmin Peng & Po-Wen She, 2024. "The impact of law on moral and social norms: evidence from facemask fines in the UK," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 311-346, June.
    5. Molitor, Ramona, 2017. "Publicly announced speed limit enforcement and its impact on road safety: Evidence from the German Blitzmarathons," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe V-75-17, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    6. Janvier Gasana & Soad Albahar & Mahareb Alkhalidi & Qout Al-Mekhled & Darline El Reda & Marwan Al-Sharbati, 2022. "Risky Roads in Kuwait: An Uneven Toll on Migrant Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-12, August.
    7. Shawn Kantor & Carl T. Kitchens & Steven Pawlowski, 2021. "Civil Asset Forfeiture, Crime, And Police Incentives: Evidence From The Comprehensive Crime Control Act Of 1984," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 217-242, January.
    8. Siân Mughan & Joanna Carroll, 2021. "Escaping the long arm of the law? Racial disparities in the effect of drivers' license suspensions on offense probabilities," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1366-1389, April.

    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. Anderson, D. Mark & Rees, Daniel I., 2015. "Per se drugged driving laws and traffic fatalities," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 122-134.
    2. Dills, Angela K., 2010. "Social host liability for minors and underage drunk-driving accidents," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 241-249, March.
    3. Sarah Marx Quintanar, 2011. "Do Driver Decisions in Traffic Court Motivate Police Discrimination in Issuing Speeding Tickets?," Departmental Working Papers 2011-13, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    4. Makofske, Matthew, 2020. "Pretextual Traffic Stops and Racial Disparities in their Use," MPRA Paper 100792, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Angela K. Dills & Sean E. Mulholland, 2018. "Ride‐Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 965-991, April.
    6. Mahdie Asl-Javadian & Mahmoud Mesbah & Masoud Foroutan Shad, 2024. "How are traffic fines affected by the driver’s car price and the police officer’s discretion? A case study of Isfahan, Iran," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1019-1038, April.
    7. Zheng, Emily Yiying, 2018. "Can technology really help to reduce underage drinking? New evidence on the effects of false ID laws with scanner provisions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 102-112.
    8. Laura Giuliano & David I. Levine & Jonathan Leonard, 2011. "Racial Bias in the Manager-Employee Relationship: An Analysis of Quits, Dismissals, and Promotions at a Large Retail Firm," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(1), pages 26-52.
    9. D. Mark Anderson & Benjamin Hansen & Daniel I. Rees, 2013. "Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 333-369.
    10. Anderson, D. Mark & Rees, Daniel I., 2012. "Per Se Drugged Driving Laws and Traffic Fatalities," IZA Discussion Papers 7048, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Kibrom A. Abay, 2018. "How Effective Are Non‐Monetary Instruments for Safe Driving? Panel Data Evidence on the Effect of the Demerit Point System in Denmark," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(3), pages 894-924, July.
    12. Shawn Kantor & Carl T. Kitchens & Steven Pawlowski, 2021. "Civil Asset Forfeiture, Crime, And Police Incentives: Evidence From The Comprehensive Crime Control Act Of 1984," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 217-242, January.
    13. Gulek, Ahmet, 2024. "Driving while hungry: The effect of fasting on traffic accidents," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Anbarci, Nejat & Lee, Jungmin, 2014. "Detecting racial bias in speed discounting: Evidence from speeding tickets in Boston," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 11-24.
    15. Cheng, Cheng & Long, Wei, 2022. "The effect of highly publicized police killings on policing: Evidence from large U.S. cities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    16. Sarah Marx Quintanar, 2017. "Man vs. machine: An investigation of speeding ticket disparities based on gender and race," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 20, pages 1-28, May.
    17. Darren Grant, 2021. "Understanding the Decline in Drinking and Driving During “The Other Great Moderation”," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 876-907, December.
    18. Mujcic, Redzo & Frijters, Paul, 2013. "Still Not Allowed on the Bus: It Matters If You're Black or White!," IZA Discussion Papers 7300, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Anderson, D. Mark & Liang, Yang & Sabia, Joseph J., 2022. "Mandatory Seatbelt Laws and Traffic Fatalities: A Reassessment," IZA Discussion Papers 15843, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Eleftheria Kontou & Noreen McDonald, 2021. "Associating ridesourcing with road safety outcomes: Insights from Austin, Texas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-18, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    traffic tickets; motor vehicle accidents; natural experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:umc:wpaper:1119. 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: Chao Gu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edumous.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.