Richard Stansfield Benson, B. L, Mast, B. D, and Rasmussen, D. W, “Can police deter drunk driving?”, Applied Economics, 2000, 32, pp

Economic Model – Increasing punishment is ineffective way of deterring DUI, favoring policies which have an indirect deterrence effect such as increasing tax on alcohol. Criminology – Numbers of drunk driving arrest crackdowns are very effective, and controlling DUI is a direct linear function of the amount of police effort

Determinants of Arrest Availability of Police resources (PA) Sworn officers per population (PR) Laws that make traffic arrests easier (AL) Variables influencing probability of fatality (DF) + Unobservable Fixed Effects PAF = f(PR, AL, PA, DF……….)

Allocation of Resources: Economic models have failed to detect effect of policing because of an omitted variable …The lack of sustained police effort to actually tackle DUI

Policy Recommendations ∆ Police Resources and Law Enforcement may increase the PAF (probability of arrest) & may deter DUI So to reduce DUI, a shift of police resources, and proactive law enforcement programs should be used