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The Economics of Controversial Policies and Unintended Consequences

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Pennsylvania Convention Center, 202-A
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Kathleen Nosal, University of Mannheim

Trigger Warning: The Causal Impact of Gun Ownership on Suicide

Alexander McQuoid
,
United States Naval Academy
David Vitt
,
Farmingdale State College
Charles Moore
,
United States Naval Academy
Stephen Sawyer
,
United States Naval Academy

Abstract

With a growing debate over tighter firearm regulations, we consider an often overlooked consequence of increased firearm access: an increase in firearm suicides. Using data from the federal criminal background check system, we consider the impact of firearm ownership of firearm suicide rates. To deal with concerns of identification, we instrument for firearm background checks with state-year level Google search intensity for phrases that reflect fear of future gun shortages and learning about the constitutional rights of firearm owners. We find that an increase in firearm ownership has a sizable and statistically significant impact on firearm suicide rates. A 10% increase in firearm ownership increases firearm suicide rates by 2.8%. Furthermore, we find no effect of gun ownership on non-firearm suicide rates, suggesting our findings are not simply capturing a suicide method substitution effect. The results are robust to a variety of validity tests. Our results make clear the link between firearm ownership and firearm suicide rates, which have increased dramatically over the last decade.

The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Child Maltreatment: Evidence From State Panel Data, 1995-2014

Sianne Vijay
,
Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame

Abstract

This paper looks at one potential risk factor for child maltreatment –marijuana use and liberalization –using evidence from medical marijuana laws (MMLs). I begin by extending the current MML-crime literature by providing a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of MMLs implemented at the state level on reported child victimization rates. I show that specific modes of medical marijuana regulation differentially influence the magnitude of reported incidences of child abuse, a finding which sheds new light on the current literature. More specifically, using fixed effects analysis applied to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Database System (NCANDS) and the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), I show that states that allow for home cultivation of marijuana in addition to decriminalizing its use see a further increase in the magnitude of reported incidences of child maltreatment rates.
Discussant(s)
Joshua Wilde
,
University of South Florida
Mark Hoekstra
,
Texas A&M University
Alexander McQuoid
,
United States Naval Academy
JEL Classifications
  • I1 - Health
  • K0 - General