The Social Costs of Gun Ownership

54 Pages Posted: 20 Sep 2004 Last revised: 3 Nov 2022

See all articles by Philip J. Cook

Philip J. Cook

Duke University - Sanford School of Public Policy; Duke University, Dept. of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Jens Ludwig

Georgetown University - Public Policy Institute (GPPI); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: September 2004

Abstract

This paper provides new estimates of the effect of household gun prevalence on homicide rates, and infers the marginal external cost of handgun ownership. The estimates utilize a superior proxy for gun prevalence, the percentage of suicides committed with a gun, which we validate. Using county- and state-level panels for 20 years, we estimate the elasticity of homicide with respect to gun prevalence as between +.1 and +.3. All of the effect of gun prevalence is on gun homicide rates. Under certain reasonable assumptions, the average annual marginal social cost of household gun ownership is in the range $100 to $600.

Suggested Citation

Cook, Philip J. and Ludwig, Jens, The Social Costs of Gun Ownership (September 2004). NBER Working Paper No. w10736, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=586647

Philip J. Cook (Contact Author)

Duke University - Sanford School of Public Policy ( email )

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Jens Ludwig

Georgetown University - Public Policy Institute (GPPI) ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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