Citation

Carpenter CS, Stehr M. SSRN eLibrary 2010; 2010(online): ID 1537776.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Social Science Electronic Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

Over 20 states have adopted laws requiring youths to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. We confirm previous research indicating that these laws reduced fatalities and increased helmet use, but we also show that the laws significantly reduced youth bicycling. We find this result in standard two-way fixed effects models of parental reports of youth bicycling, as well as in triple difference models of self-reported bicycling among high school youths that explicitly account for bicycling by youths just above the helmet law age threshold. Our results highlight important intended and unintended consequences of a well-intentioned public policy.

Carpenter, Christopher S. and Stehr, Mark, Intended and Unintended Effects of Youth Bicycle Helmet Laws (January 2010). NBER Working Paper Series, Vol. w15658, pp. -, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1537776

Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1537776