Inspection Technology, Detection and Compliance: Evidence from Florida Restaurant Inspections

Ginger Zhe Jin and Jungmin Lee

No 18939, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In this article, we show that a small innovation in inspection technology can make substantial differences in inspection outcomes. For restaurant hygiene inspections, the state of Florida has introduced a handheld electronic device, the portable digital assistant (PDA), which reminds inspectors of 1,000 potential violations that may be checked for. Using inspection records from July 2003 to June 2009, we find that the adoption of PDA led to 11% more detected violations and subsequently restaurants may have gradually increased their compliance efforts. We also find that PDA use is significantly correlated with a reduction in restaurant-related foodborne disease outbreaks.

JEL-codes: D81 D82 H75 I18 K32 L51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-04
Note: IO
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Inspection technology, detection, and compliance: evidence from Florida restaurant inspections Ginger Zhe Jin1 andJungmin Lee2 The RAND Journal of Economics Volume 45, Issue 4, pages 885–917, Winter 2014

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18939.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Inspection technology, detection, and compliance: evidence from Florida restaurant inspections (2014)
Working Paper: INSPECTION TECHNOLOGY, DETECTION, AND COMPLIANCE: EVIDENCE FROM FLORIDA RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS (2014)
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:nbr:nberwo:18939

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18939

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().