abstract

This study investigates the impact of beer taxes and a variety of alcohol-control policies on  motor vehicle fatality rates. Special attention is paid to omitted variables biases resulting from  failing to adequately control for grassroots efforts to reduce drunk driving, the enactment of  other laws which simultaneously operate to reduce highway fatalities, and the economic  conditions existing at the time the legislation is passed. In the preferred models, most of the  regulations have little or no impact on traffic mortality. By contrast, higher beer taxes are  associated with reductions in crash deaths and this result is relatively robust across  specifications.