The impact of granting undocumented immigrants driver's licenses on fatal crashes

Bibliographic Data

ID11680483
AuthorsRuinan Zhao (0009-0009-0349-7001, Department of Economics University of California Riverside California USA, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Policy Analysis and Management (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0276-8739 • E-ISSN: 1520-6688
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pam.70053
OpenAlexW4413884369
LanguageEN
References cited31

This paper examines the effect of granting undocumented immigrants driver's licenses on fatal crashes. Using county‐level crash data from the Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool, I leverage the quasi‐randomness of the timing of the driver's license reforms adoption across states to identify the causal effect of driver's license reforms. My findings show that granting undocumented immigrants driver's licenses increases overall fatal crashes by nearly 5%, equivalent to 0.46 more fatal crashes in a county per year. The effect is stronger in states with a higher population of undocumented immigrants. By investigating the mechanism through which the policy impact is likely to occur, I show that undocumented immigrants may be more likely to engage in risky driving behavior once they obtain driver's licenses. Several robustness checks and placebo tests support my main findings

Business · Computer security · Criminology · Demographic economics · Economics · Illegal immigrants · Immigration · Political science · Computer Science · Employment and Welfare Studies · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Traffic and Road Safety