Working Paper: NBER ID: w26779
Authors: Frank A. Sloan
Abstract: Driving while intoxicated causes many traffic accidents and deaths. Two decisions are closely related, whether to engage in heavy drinking, and to drive, conditional on heavy drinking. This paper reviews the extensive literature on heavy drinking, addiction, and driving after heavy drinking. Relevant public policies involve a combination of deterrence, incapacitation, and treatment. While there is empirical support for the rational addiction model applied to heavy drinking, some attributes of drinker-drivers differ from others (e.g., impulsivity in domains other than alcohol consumption, hyperbolic discounting). Policies most effective in reducing drinking and driving are alcohol excise taxes, minimum drinking age and zero tolerance laws for underage persons, dram shop and social host liability, and criminal sanctions overall. Empirical studies have not determined which specific criminal sanctions are most effective. A major impediment to criminal sanctions as a deterrent is that the probability of being stopped/arrested when driving while intoxicated is extremely low, < 0.01 to 0.02 at most, further reduced by probability of conviction/sentencing following stop/arrest far below 1. Incarceration lengths tend to be too short to incapacitate people from drinking and driving. Alcohol treatment’s effectiveness is limited by low treatment rates among persons for whom treatment is appropriate.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I12; K14; K15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| heavy drinking (L66) | decision to drive under the influence (R48) |
| perceived low probability of arrest (K42) | decision to drive under the influence (R48) |
| criminal sanctions (K42) | likelihood of driving under the influence (R48) |
| public policies (like alcohol excise taxes, minimum drinking age laws) (H59) | likelihood of driving under the influence (R48) |
| public policies (like alcohol excise taxes) (H59) | decision to drive under the influence (R48) |
| public policies (like minimum drinking age laws) (J18) | decision to drive under the influence (R48) |