Citation

Boes S, Stillman S. Health Econ. 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/hec.4875

PMID

38944845

Abstract

We exploit a reduction in the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in New Zealand from 20 to 18 to study the dynamics of youth risk-taking. Using the universe of road accidents over 15 years and an event history approach, we find no evidence that lowering the drinking age increased alcohol-related accidents among teens. Complementary results of a cohort analysis suggest that reducing the drinking age even led to a short-term decline in risky driving among youths directly affected by the MLDA change but had no longer-run impacts on youth risky driving and drinking behaviors.

Keywords: Ethanol impaired driving

Language: en

Keywords

New Zealand; dynamics; traffic accidents; drinking age; event history analysis