Presenter: Mitchell VanVuren
Co-Presenters: Daniel Palau
Faculty Mentor: Benjamin Hansen, Bill Harbaugh
Presentation Type: Oral
Primary Research Area: Social Science
Major: Economics, Mathematics
As recreational marijuana legalization grows increasingly prominent, one possible externality of its use concerns its impact on driving; motorists under the influence of marijuana may have increased risk of being involved in a fatal accident. We use national-level data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System to estimate the increased risk due to high drivers. Using a multinomial model of car accidents, we estimate that a high driver is at least 2.8 times more likely to be involved in a fatal car accident than a sober driver. Ours is the first study to estimate this parameter while accounting for changes in driving patterns across geography and time over nine years.