Drink, death and driving: do blood alcohol content limit reductions improve road safety?

Benjamin Cooper; Markus Gehrsitz; Stuart G. McIntyre

doi:10.1002/hec.4016

Drink, death and driving: do blood alcohol content limit reductions improve road safety?

Benjamin Cooper, Markus Gehrsitz, Stuart G. McIntyre

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Abstract

This study exploits a natural experiment in Scotland where the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit was reduced from 0.8 to 0.5 mg per 100 ml of blood while staying constant in all other parts of the United Kingdom. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that this change in the BAC level had no impact on either traffic accident or fatality rates.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	841-847
Number of pages	7
Journal	Health Economics
Volume	29
Issue number	7
Early online date	13 Mar 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4016
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2020

Keywords

road traffic fatalities
traffic accidents
difference in differences
blood alcohol content

Access to Document

10.1002/hec.4016

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10991050

Embargoed Document

Cooper-etal-HE-2020-Drink-death-and-driving-do-BAC-limit
Accepted author manuscript, 1.5 MB
Embargo ends: 13/03/21

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Markus Gehrsitz

markus.gehrsitz@strath.ac.uk

Economics - Senior Lecturer

Person: Academic

Cite this

Cooper, B., Gehrsitz, M., & McIntyre, S. G. (2020). Drink, death and driving: do blood alcohol content limit reductions improve road safety? Health Economics, 29(7), 841-847. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4016

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