#amhist

“Since 1977, U.S. states have passed laws steadily raising the age for which a child must ride in a car safety seat. These laws significantly raise the cost of having a third child, as many regular-sized cars cannot fit three child seats in the back. Using census data and state-year variation in laws, we estimate that when women have two children of ages requiring mandated car seats, they have a lower annual probability of giving birth by 0.73 percentage points. Consistent with a causal channel, this effect is limited to third child births, is concentrated in households with access to a car, and is larger when a male is present (when both front seats are likely to be occupied). We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000.”

Someone's reading a bedtime book and straining to hear the notes through the giggles, and someone else is breaking out in hives and coughing and runs to the bathroom. A man, too feverish even for fever, stands up abruptly and goes downstairs to the bar for whiskey. He orders another beer but seems to have lost all feeling in his right arm and has to lean on another customer for support. He proceeds to spin in circles on the table, moaning pitifully, and someone brings him a steaming cup of coffee, which he drinks in one gulp.

@toosmallortootall and I went to visit our boy Ben Tallmadge for his birthday because we are nerds and we love him. Happy 263rd birthday Ben!