Do Drinkers Know When to Say When? An Empirical Analysis of Drunk Driving

This paper presents empirical evidence that an individual's decision to drive while drunk is negatively affected by the expected full price of driving drunk. The analysis uses a unique data set containing information on self‐reported drunk driving matched to state‐level drunk driving policies as well as to state excise taxes on beer. These are hypothesized and found to affect drunk driving. Further, we find interesting racial differences but surprisingly small differences by gender in the effect of socioeconomic and policy variables on drunk driving propensities.