Still Not Seen: Unintended Consequences of Public Policy

This work examines three unintended consequences of two different policy implementations that have varied over municipalities over a sixteen year period. The effect on restaurant employment of comprehensive smoking bans is examined in the first chapter. Smokers and nonsmokers alike are willing to travel to environments that better suit their needs. If policy is not consistent in certain regions some individuals may choose to drive further for their food and drink service. The statistics support the hypothesis that this travel is occurring. The next chapter attempts to measure a subsequent effect of this driving behavior: alcohol related traffic fatalities. If people are willing to travel farther to drink, they have a longer drive home in which they are more likely to be intoxicated. Border regions with inconsistent smoking policy do show to have a higher incidence of such deaths than their counterparts. The final chapter examines the effect of state laws restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine have on the number of methamphetamine lab incidents in those states. The results support the hypothesis that border areas with inconsistent policies see an increase in such incidents on both sides of the border as methamphetamine producers willingly travel across borders to circumvent undesirable policy.