Driving, Dropouts, and Drive-Throughs: Mobility Restrictions and Teen Human Capital

Arbeitspapier

We provide evidence that graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, originally intended to improve public safety, impact human capital accumulation. Many teens use automobiles to access both school and employment. Because school and work decisions are interrelated, the effects of automobile-specific mobility restrictions are ambiguous. Using a novel triple-difference research design, we find that restricting mobility significantly reduces high school dropout rates and teen employment. We develop a multiple discrete choice model that rationalizes unintended consequences and reveals that school and work are weak complements. Thus, improved educational outcomes reflect decreased access to leisure activities rather than reduced labor market access.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16183

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education and Research Institutions: General ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions ; Transportation Economics: Government Pricing and Policy
• Subject: mobility restrictions ; human capital ; teen employment ; graduated driver licensing ; multiple discreteness

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bostwick, Valerie ; Severen, Christopher
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/278881
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET