Booster Seats and Traffic Fatalities among Children

D. Mark Anderson () and Sina Sandholt ()
Additional contact information
D. Mark Anderson: Montana State University
Sina Sandholt: Columbia University

No 10071, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In an effort to increase booster seat use among children, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is encouraging state legislators to promote stricter booster seat laws, yet there is a paucity of information on booster seat efficacy relative to other forms of restraint. Using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the period 2008-2014 and the sample selection correction proposed by Levitt and Porter (2001), the current study examines the effectiveness of booster seats relative to child safety seats and adult seat belts. For children 6 to 8 years of age, we find that booster seats are more than twice as effective as child safety seats and over 30 percent more effective than standard seat belts at decreasing the likelihood of fatality in a motor vehicle accident. For children 2 to 5 years of age, all three forms of restraint appear equally effective.

Keywords: booster seats; child safety seats; traffic fatalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2016-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse and nep-tre
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published as 'Are Booster Seats More Effective than Child Safety Seats or Seat Belts at Reducing Traffic Fatalities among Children?' in: American Journal of Health Economics, 2019, 5 (1), 42-64

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp10071.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10071

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().