Punishment and Deterrence: Evidence from Drunk Driving / Benjamin Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hansen, Benjamin.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20243.

NBER working paper series no. w20243

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Punishment and Deterrence

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

Traditional economic models of criminal behavior have straightforward predictions: raising the expected cost of crime via apprehension probabilities or punishments decreases crime. I test the effect of harsher punishments on deterring driving under the influence (DUI). In this setting, punishments are determined by strict rules on Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) and previous offenses. Regression discontinuity derived estimates suggest that having a BAC above the DUI threshold reduces recidivism by up to 2 percentage points (17 percent). Likewise having a BAC over the aggravated DUI threshold reduces recidivism by an additional percentage point (9 percent). The results suggest that recent recommendations to lower the BAC limit to .05 would save relatively few lives, while increasing marginal punishments and sanctions monotonically along the BAC distribution would more effectively deter the drunk drivers most likely to be involved in fatal crashes.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2014.