It's No Accident: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Vehicle Safety Inspections
An increase in technology means that vehicles are more reliable than in the past. Accordingly, states have begun to discontinue their requirements for vehicle safety inspections. To gauge the effect of such changes, we examine traffic fatality data from 2000 to 2015, with emphasis on New Jersey, which ended safety inspection requirements in 2010. Utilizing a synthetic controls approach, we conclude that ending these requirements did not result in a significant increase in the frequency or intensity of accidents due to car failure, implying that the consumer and government expenditures used for inspections could be reallocated to other areas of travel safety. (JEL R41, Z18, C23)