Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/93321 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7930
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A large literature has documented significant public health benefits associated with the minimum legal drinking age in the United States, particularly because of the resulting effects on motor vehicle accidents. These benefits form the primary basis for continued efforts to restrict youth access to alcohol. It is important to keep in mind, though, that policymakers have a wide variety of alcohol-control options available to them, and understanding how these policies may complement or substitute for one another can improve policy making moving forward. Towards this end, we propose that investigating the causal effects of the minimum legal drinking age in New South Wales, Australia provides a particularly informative case study, because Australian states are among the world leaders in their efforts against drunk driving. Using an age-based regression-discontinuity design applied to restricted-use data from several sources, we find no evidence that legal access to alcohol has effects on motor vehicle accidents of any type in New South Wales, despite having large effects on drinking and on hospitalizations due to alcohol abuse.
Subjects: 
health
alcohol
minimum legal drinking age
drunk driving
JEL: 
I18
K32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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