The Walmart Effect: Testing Private Interventions to Reduce Gun Suicide

25 Pages Posted: 23 Jun 2020

See all articles by Ian Ayres

Ian Ayres

Yale University - Yale Law School; Yale University - Yale School of Management

Zachary Shelley

Yale Law School

Fredrick E. Vars

University of Alabama - School of Law

Date Written: June 4, 2020

Abstract

This article tests the impact of Walmart’s corporate decisions to end the sale of handguns at its stores in 1994 and to discontinue the sale of all firearms at approximately 59% of its stores in 2006 before resuming firearms sales at some of those stores in 2011. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that that from 1994 to 2005 counties with Walmarts robustly experienced a reduction in the suicide rate and experienced no change in the homicide rate. These models, which control for a variety of legal, social and demographic variables, as well as county and time fixed effects, suggest that Walmart’s policy change caused a 3.3 to 7.5% reduction in the suicide rate within affected counties – which represents an estimated 5,104 to 11,970 lives saved over the studied period (425-998 per year). These reductions were particularly pronounced in counties in large metropolitan areas, with lower indicia of social capital, and with weaker gun control laws. We also find a separate, statistically significant (though only corollary) impact of gun control laws – with a one standard deviation increase in the number of gun laws correlated with a 0.2 to 14.4% decrease in suicide rate. In contrast, Walmart’s 2006 and 2011 decisions to discontinue and subsequently resume the sale of rifles and shotguns in many of its stores was not associated with a robustly measured effect on homicide or suicide rates. We do find evidence that Walmart’s 2006 decision to reduce the number of its stores that sold firearms caused a statistically significant reduction in the suicide rate for counties in which Walmart did not subsequently resume firearms sales.

Keywords: Firearms, Suicide, Corporate Policy

Suggested Citation

Ayres, Ian and Shelley, Zachary and Vars, Fredrick E., The Walmart Effect: Testing Private Interventions to Reduce Gun Suicide (June 4, 2020). U of Alabama Legal Studies Research Paper No. 3620095, 48 JL Med Ethics 74 (2020), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3620095

Ian Ayres (Contact Author)

Yale University - Yale Law School ( email )

P.O. Box 208215
New Haven, CT 06520-8215
United States
203-432-7101 (Phone)
203-432-2592 (Fax)

Yale University - Yale School of Management

135 Prospect Street
P.O. Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
United States

Zachary Shelley

Yale Law School ( email )

127 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06510
United States

Fredrick E. Vars

University of Alabama - School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 870382
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
United States

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