Donorcycles: Motorcycle Helmet Laws and the Supply of Organ Donors
Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Todd Elder & Brian Moore
Journal of Law and Economics, November 2011, Pages 907-935
Abstract:
Traffic safety mandates are typically designed to reduce the harmful
externalities of risky behaviors. We consider whether motorcycle helmet
laws also reduce a beneficial externality by decreasing the supply of
viable organ donors. Our central estimates show that organ donations
resulting from fatal motor vehicle accidents increase by 10 percent when
states repeal helmet laws. Two features of this association suggest
that it is causal: first, nearly all of it is concentrated among men,
who account for over 90 percent of all motorcyclist deaths, and second,
helmet laws are unrelated to the supply of donors who die in
circumstances other than motor vehicle accidents. The estimates imply
that every death of a helmetless motorcyclist prevents or delays as many
as .33 death among individuals on organ transplant waiting lists.
I would expect deaths to go up, and total accidents to go down slightly, after a helmet law is repealed. People would be slightly less willing to take risks, but if there is an accident it is more likely to result in death.
