Fines, Non-Payment, and Revenues: Evidence from Speeding Tickets
- We estimate the effect of the level of fines on payment compliance and revenues collected from speeding tickets. Exploiting discontinuous increases in fines at speed cutoffs, we implement a regression discontinuity design. The results document small payment responses: a 10 percent increase in the fine (i.e. the payment obligation) induces a 1 percentage point decline in timely payments. The implied revenue elasticity is about 0.9. Expressed in absolute terms, a one euro increase in the fine translates into a roughly 60 cent increase in payments collected.