Driving, Dropouts, and Drive-Throughs: Mobility Restrictions and Teen Human Capita

Valerie Bostwick and Christopher Severen

No 22-22, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Abstract: We provide evidence that graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, originally intended to improve public safety, impact both high school completion and teen employment. Many teens use automobiles to commute both to school and to employment. Because school and work decisions are interrelated, the effects of automobile-specific mobility restrictions are ex ante ambiguous. Combining variation in the timing of both GDL law adoption and changes in compulsory school laws into a triple-difference research design shows that restricting teen mobility significantly reduces high school dropout rates and teen employment. These findings are consistent with a model in which teens use automobiles to access educational distractions (employment or even risky behaviors). We develop a discrete choice model that reflects reduced access to school, work, and other activities, which reveals that limiting access to work alone cannot explain the reduction in high school dropout rates.

Keywords: Mobility Restrictions; Human Capital; Teen Employment; GDL Laws; Multiple Discreteness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C35 I20 J22 J24 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60
Date: 2022-08-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-des, nep-hea, nep-law and nep-ure
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Working Paper: Driving, Dropouts, and Drive-Throughs: Mobility Restrictions and Teen Human Capital (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedpwp:94660

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DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2022.22

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