A perverse effect of lowering the threshold blood alcohol content

Abstract

Recent legislation in the USA encourages states to lower the legal threshold for drunk driving blood alcohol content. The intention of such legislation is to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities associated with drunk driving. This note shows that lowering the threshold blood alcohol content has an ambiguous impact on the incidence of drunk driving accidents and will not reduce the number of drunk drivers with blood alcohol content above a previous threshold. The formal analysis serves to encourage further empirical research in this area.

Acknowledgements

In working on this paper the author benefited from exchanges with Dana Cox, Richard Ford, Darren Grant, and Lars Powell. Their willingness to let the author take advantage of their thoughts and insights is appreciated. The ideas expressed in this paper do not represent the opinions or policies of American Express, they are solely the responsibility of the author.