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The Effectiveness of Vehicle Safety Inspections: An Analysis Using Panel Data
Author(s) -
Merrell David,
Poitras Marc,
Sutter Daniel
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00177.x
Subject(s) - panel data , vehicle safety , econometrics , case fatality rate , transport engineering , engineering , automotive engineering , economics , environmental health , medicine , population
We examined the effectiveness of state automobile safety inspections and present new evidence from a panel of the 50 states for the years 1981‐1993. Our approach incorporated several innovations over previous studies of safety inspections; most significantly, we estimated a fixed‐effects model that incorporated state‐specific shifts in casualty rates. We found no evidence that inspections significantly reduce fatality or injury rates. Our study also provides evidence on the effects of speed limits, seat belts, and Peltzman's offsetting behavior hypothesis.