Substance Abuse Treatment and Motor Vehicle Fatalities

Beth A. Freeborn and Brian McManus ()
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Brian McManus: Olin School of Business at Washington University

No 66, Working Papers from Department of Economics, College of William and Mary

Abstract: The danger of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving implies that policies that reduce substance abuse can save lives. Using several estimation approaches, we show that a US county’s supply of substance abuse treatment facilities is negatively and significantly related to the county’s number of motor vehicle deaths. We find that placing an additional treatment clinic in a county reduces the number of vehicle fatalities by 8%. An additional outpatient clinic, which specializes in treating the local population, can reduce the overall number of traffic deaths by 13% and the number of alcohol-related deaths by 24%.

Keywords: substance abuse; alcohol; motor vehicle fatalities; drunk driving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I18 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-law
Date: 2007-12-07
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwm:wpaper:66

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