The Efficacy of Booster Seat Laws in Reducing Injury and Mortality: Estimating the Effects on Children and Testing for Compensating Behavior

<a href="https://embed.stanford.edu/iframe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.stanford.edu%2Fzh746nn8134" class="su-underline">Show Content</a>

Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Motor vehicle accidents have been the leading cause of death for children and youth for decades. Booster seats are designed to better protect children four to eight years old in the event of an accident, and over the past decade, forty-seven states and the District of Columbia have passed laws mandating their use. In this paper I estimate the effect that booster seat laws have on reducing injury and mortality among five- to eight year-old children, using data from the WISQARS cause of death database for the years 1999 to 2007 as well as from FARS fatal crashes database from 1994 to 2009. In addition to estimating the direct effect on children, I also test for compensating behavior among older age groups, who may change their behavior due to the perception of diminished risk to their children while driving. My findings indicate that there is a nearly 25% decrease in mortality among six-year-olds covered by booster seat laws, but that there is no statistically significant effect on five-, seven-, or eight-year-old mortalities. I also find that there is evidence of compensating behavior among older drivers, and that the estimated total increase in deaths among older drivers exceeds the number of lives saved among children.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2012

Author	Nelson, Andrew
Primary advisor	Bhattacharya, Jayanta
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subject	Stanford Department of Economics
Subject	Peltzman effect
Subject	child safety restraint
Subject	KABCO scale
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/zh746nn8134

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.

Preferred Citation: Nelson, Andrew. (2012). The Efficacy of Booster Seat Laws in Reducing Injury and Mortality: Estimating the Effects on Children and Testing for Compensating Behavior. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/zh746nn8134

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

Loading usage metrics...