Driving Under the Influence: The Deterrent Impact of Tougher Laws in the United States

Abstract

Drunk driving is one of the most common crimes committed in the United States. With many lives lost each year, alcohol-related vehicle accidents bestow a large negative externality on society. For this reason, the government has had to take action by implementing laws with the intent of raising the perceived cost of drinking and driving, in order to deter as many people as possible from driving drunk. Prior research suggests that lowering the legal blood alcohol concentration limit has a deterrent effect on drunk driving and fatalities, while implementing stricter driving under the influence penalties has had mixed effects. Our study investigates the effect of these two law changes from 1980-2010 on four outcome variables: per capita alcohol consumption, drivers involved in fatal accidents, driving under the influence charges, and food and drink place sales. We hypothesize that both lowering the legal BAC limit and implementing harsher DUI penalties will be correlated with a decrease per capita alcohol consumption, a decrease the number of drivers involved in fatal accident with alcohol present, an increase in number of driving under the influence charges, and an increase in food and drink place sales. We control for vehicle miles travelled, alcohol taxes, population, and use fixed effects for state and year. We find that a decrease in the BAC limit is correlated with a decrease in per capita alcohol consumption, and a decrease in the number of drivers with blood alcohol concentration 0.08+ g/dL involved in fatal accidents. As expected, we find that a decrease in the BAC limit is correlated with an increase in DUI charges. We found minimal evidence of a correlation between stricter DUI penalties and any of our outcome variables, and minimal significance of all DUI laws on food and drinking places sales.