1. The effect of product safety regulation on safety precautions.
- Author
-
Viscusi WK and Cavallo GO
- Subjects
- Adult, Burns prevention & control, Child, Child Welfare, Child, Preschool, Consumer Product Safety legislation & jurisprudence, Device Approval, Equipment Design, Female, Fires prevention & control, Humans, Infant, Linear Models, Male, Regression Analysis, Risk Assessment, United States, Accident Prevention, Consumer Product Safety standards, Equipment Safety standards
- Abstract
This paper explores the means by which lighter safety regulations alter the precautionary behavior of 200 subjects in a field test of cigarette lighters with a child-resistant feature. The new lighter design leads respondents to believe the lighters are safer, but there is no clear-cut evidence that the effect on perceived risk levels is excessive. Using the estimated relationship between cigarette lighter risk perceptions and a variety of measures of precautions, this paper provides explicit estimates of the effect of regulations on precautionary behavior and on lighter safety. On balance, the child-resistant feature will reduce fire-related injuries by much more than any diminished precaution taking.
- Published
- 1994
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