This paper investigates the nature, and impact of the reporting bias associated with the police-reported crash data on inferences made using this data. In doing so, we merge a detailed emergency room data and police-reported crash data for a specific region in Denmark. To disentangle potentially...

The classical Ising model was used to re-create the ferromagnetic phenomenon in statistical mechanics. The model describes the behavior of atoms in a lattice. Each atom may interact only with its neighbors, and has two states called spins. When the atoms polarize their spins, the resulting...

Over the past year, the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) conducted an intensive pedestrian-safety engineering study, the PedSafe Study. PedSafe was funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)*, which also funded companion studies in Las Vegas and Miami. The study was...

The net effect of food policies, viewed in terms of reduction of foodborne illness, death and food related diseases from obesity, may sometimes be much smaller than the predicted effect because of failure to account for offsetting behavior (OB). Theoretical and empirical models are developed and...

We empirically investigate the deterrent and offsetting effects of the introduction of a point–record driving license (PDRL) in Italy. We find that the PDRL resulted in a sharp reduction of seat belt offenses, and in a noticeable decrease of road accidents. However, the reduction in occupant...

Foodborne disease outbreaks have a tremendous impact on society, including foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, lost work time, and deaths. These food-safety events have a significant influence in shaping consumer's perception of risk. In food consumption, outbreaks of foodborne illnesses also...

The offset hypothesis predicts consumers adapt to innovations that improve safety by becoming less vigilant about safety. Previous tests have used aggregate data that may confound the effect of a safety policy with those consumers who are most affected by it. We test the hypothesis using...

Firms can sometimes preempt regulation by changing the nature, scale or location of their activities. The objectives of this paper are to model such preemptive behavior and to draw out implications for regulatory design. Applications to New Source Review are emphasized. Regulatory triggers...