More Tickets, Fewer Accidents: How Cash-Strapped Towns Make for Safer Roads

Makowsky, Michael and Thomas, Stratmann (2008): More Tickets, Fewer Accidents: How Cash-Strapped Towns Make for Safer Roads.

Abstract

Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of injury and death in the U.S. The role of traffic law enforcement in the reduction of accidents has been studied by relatively few papers and with mixed results that may be due to a simultaneity problem. Traffic law enforcement may reduce accidents, but police are also likely to be stricter in accident-prone areas. We use municipal budgetary shortfalls as an instrumental variable to identify the effect of traffic citations on traffic safety and show that budgetary shortfalls lead to more frequent issuance of tickets to drivers. Using a panel of municipalities in Massachusetts, we show that increases in the number of tickets written reduce motor vehicle accidents and accident related injuries, and that tickets issued to younger drivers have a larger effect in reducing accidents. The findings show that failure to control for endogeneity results in a significant underestimation of the positive impact of law enforcement on traffic safety.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: accidents, safety, law enforcement, simultaneity
• Subjects: K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K32 - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law; H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government ; Intergovernmental Relations > H71 - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue; K - Law and Economics > K4 - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior > K42 - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models

References

Best Practices, User Fees. Technical Assistance Section, Division of Local Services, Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

Asch, P. and D. T. Levy (1990). "Young Driver Fatalities: The Roles of Drinking Age and Drinking Experience." Southern Economic Journal 57(2): 512-520.

Becker, G. S. (1968). "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach." The Journal of Political Economy 76(2): 169-217.

Blais, E. and B. Dupont (2005). "Assessing the Capability of Intensive Police Programmes to Prevent Severe Road Accidents: A Systematic Review." British Journal of Criminology 45(6): 914-937.

Bradbury, K. L., C. J. Mayer, et al. (2001). "Property tax limits, local fiscal behavior, and property values: evidence from Massachusetts under Proposition." 80(2): 287-311.

Cutler, D. M., D. W. Elmendorf, et al. (1999). "Restraining the Leviathan: property tax limitation in Massachusetts." Journal of Public Economics 71(3): 313-334.

Deery, H. A. (1999). "Hazard and Risk Perception among Young Novice Drivers." Journal of Safety Research 30(4): 225-236.

Ehrlich, I. (1996). "Crime, Punishment, and the Market for Offenses." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 10(1): 43-67.

Elvik, R. (2002). "The Importance of Confounding in Observational Before-and-After Studies of Road Safety Measures." Accident Analysis & Prevention 34(5): 631-635.

Forester, T. H., R. F. McNown, et al. (1984). "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the 55 MPH Speed Limit." Southern Economic Journal 50(3): 631-641.

Galles, G. M. and R. L. Sexton (1998). "A Tale of Two Tax Jurisdictions: The Surprising Effects of California's Proposition 13 and Massachusetts' Proposition 2 1/2." American Journal of Economics and Sociology 57(2): 123-133.

Garrett, T. A. and G. A. Wagner (2008). "Red Ink in the Rear-view Mirror: Local Fiscal Conditions and the Issuance of Traffic Citations." Journal of Law and Economics Forthcoming.

Helland, E. and A. Tabarrok (2002). " The Effect of Electoral Institutions on Tort Awards." American Law and Economics Review 4(2): 341-370.

Heron, M. (2007). "Deaths: Leading Causes for 2004." National Vital Statistics Reports 56(5). Insurance.com. (2007). "Car Accidents Happen Closer To Home Than You May Think." Retrieved October 1st, 2008, 2008, from http://www.insurance.com/article.aspx/Car_Accidents_Happen_Closer_To_Home_Than_You_May_Think/artid/104.

Jondrow, J., B. Marianne, et al. (1983). "The Optimal Speed Limit." Economic Enquiry 21: 325-336.

Jones, M. M. and R. Bayer (2007). "Paternalism & Its Discontents: Motorcycle Helmet Laws, Libertarian Values, and Public Health." American Journal of Public Health 97(2): 208-217.

Keeler, T. E. (1994). "Highway Safety, Economic Behavior, and Driving Environment." The American Economic Review 84(3): 684-693.

Kneuper, R. and B. Yandle (1994). "Auto Insurers and the Air Bag." The Journal of Risk and Insurance 61(1): 107-116.

Lave, C. A. (1985). "Speeding, Coordination, and the 55 MPH Limit." The American Economic Review 75(5): 1159-1164.

Lee, D. R. (1985). "Policing Cost, Evasion Cost, and the Optimal Speed Limit." Southern Economic Journal 52(1): 34-45.

Levitt, S. D. (1997). "Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime." The American Economic Review 87(3): 270-290.

Levitt, S. D. (2002). "Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effects of Police on Crime: Reply." The American Economic Review 92(4): 1244-1250.

Levitt, S. D. and J. Porter (2001). "Sample Selection in the Estimation of Air Bag and Seat Belt Effectiveness." The Review of Economics and Statistics 83(4): 603-615.

Loeb, P. D. (1995). "The Effectiveness of Seat-Belt Legislation in Reducing Injury Rates in Texas." The American Economic Review 85(2): 81-84.

Makowsky, M. D. and T. Stratmann (2009). "Political Economy at Any Speed: What Determines Traffic Citations." American Economic Review 99(1).

Massachusetts Department of Revenue, D. o. L. S. (2001). Levy Limits: A Primer on Proposition 2 1/2. C. Frederick A. Laskey, Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

McCarthy, P. S. (1999). "Public policy and highway safety: a city-wide perspective." Regional Science and Urban Economics 29(2): 231-244.

Merrell, D., M. Poitras, et al. (1999). "The Effectiveness of Vehicle Safety Inspections: An Analysis Using Panel Data." Southern Economic Journal 65(3): 571-583.

Miniño, A. M., M. Heron, et al. (2007). "Deaths: Final Data for 2004." National Vital Statistics Reports 55(19).

Moore, V. M., J. Dolinis, et al. (1995). "Vehicle Speed and Risk of a Severe Crash." Epidemiology 6(3): 258-262.

Mosteller, F. and J. W. Tukey (1977). Data Analysis and Regression: a Second Course in Statistics. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Polinsky, A. M. and S. Shavell (1992). "Enforcement Costs and the Optimal Magnitude and Probability of Fines." Journal of Law and Economics 35(1): 133-148.

Redelmeier, D. A., R. J. Tibshirani, et al. (2003). "Traffic-law Enforcement and Risk of Death from Motor-Vehicle Crashes: case-crossover study." The Lancet 361.

Stock, J. H., J. H. Wright, et al. (2002). "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments." Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 20(4): 518-529.

Stock, J. H. and M. Yogo (2005). Testing for weak instruments in linear IV regression. Identification and Inference for Econometric Models: Essays in Honor of

Thomas Rothenberg. D. W. K. A. a. J. H. Stock. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 80-108.

Williams, A. F., N. N. Paek, et al. (1995). "Factors That Drivers Say Motivate Safe Driving Practices." Journal of Safety Research 26(2): 119-124.