Primary Seat Belt Laws and Offsetting Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Individual Accident Data

Yong-Kyun Bae ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: According to the offsetting effect theory, since drivers wearing seat belts feel more secure, they tend to drive less carefully and may cause more accidents, including those involving pedestrians. Most previous studies have used only state-level accident data, which cannot control for individual characteristics of drivers, vehicles, and the environmental factors surrounding the accidents. This paper uses individual-level accident data to analyze how drivers respond to the laws exploiting changes in the seat belt laws in a number of US states in the last decade. I find that the laws do not cause less careful behavior by drivers. In fact, they drive more carefully when more stringent seat belt laws are in effect, and this leads to less involvement of pedestrians in accidents. These results show that the offsetting effects do not exist when all accidents, including fatal accidents, are considered.

Keywords: Offsetting Effects; Safety Regulation; Seat Belt Laws; Vehicle Accidents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 L51 L62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-04-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-reg
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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