Does easier access to alcohol affect road safety? Insights from Texas municipalities

• In Event: Unintended Consequences and Tradeoffs in Substance Use Policy

Abstract

We examine the impact of local alcohol availability on traffic accidents, leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in local alcohol policies in Texas. More than 300 cities in Texas voted to legalize alcohol sales between 1990 and 2019, and the passage of these so-called “wet laws” leads to a sizable increase in liquor establishments. Despite this increase, we do not observe a corresponding increase in fatal alcohol-related traffic accidents, fatalities, or instances of drunk driving in fatal accidents. We also find that the increase in liquor establishments is primarily driven by off-premise retailers, possibly indicating that off-premise alcohol consumption may be unrelated to alcohol-impaired traffic incidents. Our study contributes to a broader understanding of how policies regulating 'sin goods' like alcohol influence public outcomes.

Author

• Somdeepa Das, Purdue University
  Presenting Author