Like me, my buddy Todd Zywicki has posted on a recent cell phone working paper. Unfortunately, he discusses only the cell-phone/drunk-driver paper, and not the Hahn and Prieger paper that has evidence on the bottom line risk issue.
Todd also incautiously says, "driving and talking on a cell phone is clearly riskier behavior than not talking on the phone while driving." Not necessarily -- that depends on the would-be cell phone user's alternative activity, which Todd hypothesizes will probably be dangerous because of the sort of person he is. For example, the cell-phone user might be talking to another person in the car, which will encourage the driver to look at the passenger and away from the road. Merely talking on a cell-phone doesn't involve this problem. Dialing does -- but this problem isn't solved by hands-free phones. Hahn and Dudley have a paper that deals with these and other points.
My point is, let's not jump to conclusions. Although Todd also would hesitate to regulate, he does so because of a faith in norms. A more convincing reason is that the evidence doesn't yet support a particular regulatory strategy.
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