Driving Under the Influence of Our Fathers

Randi Hjalmarsson and Matthew Lindquist

No 2009:16, Research Papers in Economics from Stockholm University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper studies intergenerational correlations in drunk driving between fathers and their children using the Stockholm Birth Cohort. We find strong evidence of an intergenerational drunk driving relationship. Cohort members who have fathers with a drunk driving record have 2.59 times higher odds of having a drunk driving conviction themselves than cohort members with non-drunk driving fathers. We then go on to investigate the underlying mechanisms that give rise to these correlations. The results provide compelling evidence that at least some of this relationship represents a behavior-specific transference from fathers to their children. Specifically, much of the raw father-child drunk driving relationship persists over and above controls for a number of potential explanations, including that the relationship is: (i) a by-product of parental alcoholism, (ii) symptomatic of a general pattern of non-law abiding behavior, (iii) attributable to inherited ability and physical characteristics, and (iv) accounted for by common background variables or social factors. We then go on to show how this mechanism may change over time. As cohort members age into adulthood, the father-child drunk driving relationship appears to be driven by a more general behavioral transference mechanism and can be accounted for by parental alcoholism and non-law abiding behavior.

Keywords: alcohol; crime; drunk driving; illegal behavior; intergenerational crime; intergenerational mobility; risky behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J62 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2009-09-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-lab and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Journal Article: Driving Under the Influence of Our Fathers (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2009_0016

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