Driving Under the Influence of Our Fathers

32 Pages Posted: 10 Nov 2009

See all articles by Matthew J. Lindquist

Matthew J. Lindquist

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI)

Randi Hjalmarsson

University of Maryland - School of Public Policy

Date Written: September 7, 2009

Abstract

This paper studies intergenerational correlations in drunk driving between fathers and their children using the Stockholm Birth Cohort. We find strong evidence of an intergenerational drunk driving relationship. Cohort members who have fathers with a drunk driving record have 2.59 times higher odds of having a drunk driving conviction themselves than cohort members with non-drunk driving fathers. We then go on to investigate the underlying mechanisms that give rise to these correlations. The results provide compelling evidence that at least some of this relationship represents a behavior-specific transference from fathers to their children. Specifically, much of the raw father-child drunk driving relationship persists over and above controls for a number of potential explanations, including that the relationship is: (i) a by-product of parental alcoholism, (ii) symptomatic of a general pattern of non-law abiding behavior, (iii) attributable to inherited ability and physical characteristics, and (iv) accounted for by common background variables or social factors. We then go on to show how this mechanism may change over time. As cohort members age into adulthood, the father-child drunk driving relationship appears to be driven by a more general behavioral transference mechanism and can be accounted for by parental alcoholism and non-law abiding behavior.

Keywords: alcohol, crime, drunk driving, illegal behavior, intergenerational crime, intergenerational mobility, risky behavior

JEL Classification: J62, K42

Suggested Citation

Lindquist, Matthew J. and Hjalmarsson, Randi, Driving Under the Influence of Our Fathers (September 7, 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1503622 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1503622

Matthew J. Lindquist (Contact Author)

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) ( email )

Kyrkgatan 43B
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

Randi Hjalmarsson

University of Maryland - School of Public Policy ( email )

College Park
College Park, MD 20742
United States

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