Law Commons^™

The Public Choice Of Driving Competence Regulations, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and classify each state's driver's licensing laws and then test whether the licensing laws affect the percentages of over-64 persons licensed and the proportion of older drivers involved in accidents to determine an optimal level of driving.

Design and Methods: This paper evaluates state driving rules, obtained from laws, regulations, and driver's manuals, tests, based upon Department of Transportation data, whether the type of laws affects driving and accident rates for those over 64 and suggests a uniform scheme combining self-reporting of driving problems, on-the-road tests of drivers who fall below …

Aging America, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Professor Sarah Harper's assessment of the legal, political, medical, and economic issues associated with old age in the United States heralded the theme for this Symposium, "Aging America." Her analysis turns, as she puts it, on "a fundamental shift in the demographic structure of society. No longer will it be the norm to have large numbers of young and small numbers of old,"1 as it was when I was a boy (age 11 on V.J. Day, 1945).

"Rather, we are entering a world where age groups will be distributed more or less equally across society-an age-symmetric society."

2 Soon, America …

The Public Choice Of Elder Abuse Law, Margaret F. Brinig, Gerald Jogerst, Jeanette Daly, Gretchen Schmuch, Jeffrey Dawson

Journal Articles

This interdisciplinary study finds that the way laws are written and treated by state regulators measurably affects bureaucratic performance: the care taken by legislatures and state agencies in developing domestic elder abuse law affects how lower-level bureaucrats investigate and report abuse. Perhaps more interesting, however, are two robust findings about state law making. Both legislator characteristics (here, being middle-aged or slightly older) and lobbying by seemingly the most important group (here, the American Association of Retired Persons [AARP]) sometimes have an unexpected effect. We surmise that these legislators and lobbyists find other issues both more politically attractive and more pressing …