Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17287
Authors: Marco Francesconi; Jonathan James
Abstract: In May 2018, Scotland introduced a minimum unit price on alcohol. We examine the impact of this policy on traffic fatalities and drunk driving accidents. Using administrative data on the universe of vehicle collisions in Britain and a range of quasi-experimental modeling approaches, we do not find that the policy had an effect on road crash deaths and drunk driving collisions. The results are robust to several sensitivity exercises. There is no evidence of effect heterogeneity by income and other predictors of alcohol consumption or cross-border effects. A brief discussion of the policy implications of our findings is provided.
Keywords: externality; alcohol; minimum unit pricing; motor vehicle collisions; driving under the influence
JEL Codes: D12; D62; H23; K42; R41
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| minimum unit pricing (MUP) (L11) | traffic fatalities (R48) |
| minimum unit pricing (MUP) (L11) | drunk driving accidents (R48) |
| alcohol consumption (L66) | traffic fatalities (R48) |