Does Making Cars Safer Reduce Deaths?  We tested this idea in NASCAR.  The paper was published in the Southern Economic Journal, Volume 74, No. 1 (July 2007), pp. 71-84.

Automobile Safety Regulation and the Incentive to Drive Recklessly: Evidence from NASCAR

by Russell S. Sobel and Todd M. Nesbit

Department of Economics

P.O. Box 6025

West Virginia University

Morgantown, WV 26506

Abstract: When safety regulation makes automobiles safer, drivers may drive more recklessly, creating partially or completely offsetting effects on the overall level of safety.  Evidence of these offsetting effects has been hard to find, however, primarily because of the aggregate nature of accident data.  In this paper we explore how changes in the safety of automobiles used in NASCAR has altered the incentive of drivers to drive recklessly.  This unique data set allows more accurate and objective measurement of the necessary variables to test for these effects at a micro-level.  Our results strongly support the presence of these offsetting behavioral effects.

Click here for the PDF version of the paper.

This paper was featured in sports illustrated online,  and blogs including (nascar.aolsportsblog.com, www.autoracing1.com), and in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

It was also featured on CBS Radio Network (nationwide) 7pm news (5/11/07), and was picked up by Associated Press (5/11/07) and ran in many newspapers and radio stations across the country.  It was also featured as a front page headline on both FoxSports.com and NASCAR.com.

This paper was also cited by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner on the Freakonomics website after his NYT article on the subject.