Countervailing Effect Research Articles

Temporary migration and wage inequality: The effects of skills, nationality and migration status in Aotearoa New Zealand

AbstractThis study focuses on the labour market dimensions of temporary migration by quantitatively exploring the relationship between temporary migration and wage inequality. Over recent decades, there has been a growing emphasis on migration management in shaping migration policies across the world, especially in the Anglophone settler societies. At the same time, temporary migration policies have been criticized for contributing to the creation of inequalities. This study investigates wage inequality among temporary migrants between 2010 and 2019 in Aotearoa New Zealand, a period when the number of people holding temporary visas more than doubled. Despite the increase in this population of temporary migrants, our analysis of administrative data has shown that the overall level of wage inequality of temporary migrants holding work visas declined between 2010 and 2019. The study uses the Shapley‐value decomposition approach to quantify the contributions of skills, nationality and migration status on wage inequality, factors that are associated with the migration system and the composition of migrants. Results suggest that skills and nationality were the key factors that have led to decrease wage inequality over the period. In contrast, migration status has a small countervailing effect on the decreases in wage inequality. Our analysis concludes that wage inequality is shaped by two factors in the case of temporary migration. The first is the migration system itself which sets different conditions for migrants in terms of skills and migration status, and the second is the composition of the migrant population.

Farm Size, Soil Investment, and Quality: Theory and Evidence from a Panel Data Set in Tanzania

Achieving sustainable agricultural development is a vital concern as soil degradation poses a growing threat to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the developing world. Previous literature has highlighted the potential for rural population growth to exacerbate this concern by leading to smaller farm sizes and crop production on marginal land. This paper uses a theoretical model to demonstrate a countervailing effect consistent with the work of Esther Boserup: Smaller farm sizes can encourage greater intensification and investment in the soil. Using panel data from the Tanzania National Panel Survey, I test the model and find some evidence consistent with this effect. Smaller farms are associated with greater organic, but not inorganic, fertilizer application, and higher levels of some soil quality proxies. These results suggest that if key resource and information constraints are overcome, population growth need not be an obstacle, and can be a boon, to sustainable agricultural development.

Information, Incentives, and CEO Replacement

ABSTRACT There are instances where CEO turnover occurs, even if the company has not made any significant strategy changes, and the new CEO possesses similar abilities as the predecessor. This paper aims to provide a rational explanation for this seemingly irrational phenomenon. One possible reason for this “aggressive” CEO turnover is the board’s desire to reduce the information rents earned by the privately informed CEO. Specifically, the incumbent CEO has a temptation to “sandbag” the board about profitability prospects to secure more generous incentive pay for future implementation, and a (seemingly aggressive) replacement policy helps discourage this kind of gaming. That is, instead of “information-based entrenchment” as suggested by the literature (Laux 2008; Inderst and Mueller 2010), this paper shows a countervailing effect that the CEO’s private information (combined with the later-stage moral hazard problem) may lead to her dismissal more often than the ex post efficient benchmark. JEL Classifications: D86; G34; M41.

Bank connectedness and excessive risk-taking: Some cross-country evidence

We investigate whether the connectedness of banks shapes their incentive to take on excessive risk, using panel data from more than 400 public banks in 19 economies during the period of 2000–2018. We find supportive evidence that banks’ excessive risk-taking is significantly associated with their connectedness and the impact of banks’ directional connectedness varies. A higher outward connectedness significantly fuels banks’ incentive to take excessive risk, while a higher inward connectedness has a countervailing effect

Turbulence in compact to giant H ii regions

ABSTRACT Radial velocity fluctuations on the plane of the sky are a powerful tool for studying the turbulent dynamics of emission line regions. We conduct a systematic statistical analysis of the H α velocity field for a diverse sample of nine ${\rm H\, \small{II}}$ regions, spanning two orders of magnitude in size and luminosity, located in the Milky Way and other Local Group galaxies. By fitting a simple model to the second-order spatial structure function of velocity fluctuations, we extract three fundamental parameters: the velocity dispersion, the correlation length, and the power-law slope. We determine credibility limits for these parameters in each region, accounting for observational limitations of noise, atmospheric seeing, and the finite map size. The plane-of-sky velocity dispersion is found to be a better diagnostic of turbulent motions than the line width, especially for lower luminosity regions where the turbulence is subsonic. The correlation length of velocity fluctuations is found to be always roughly 2 per cent of the ${\rm H\, \small{II}}$ region diameter, implying that turbulence is driven on relatively small scales. No evidence is found for any steepening of the structure function in the transition from subsonic to supersonic turbulence, possibly due to the countervailing effect of projection smoothing. Ionized density fluctuations are too large to be explained by the action of the turbulence in any but the highest luminosity sources. A variety of behaviours are seen on scales larger than the correlation length, with only a minority of sources showing evidence for homogeneity on the largest scales.

Organisational voice and employee‐focused voice: Two distinct voice forms and their effects on burnout and innovative behavior

AbstractScholars and practitioners have long emphasised the importance of employees speaking up about workplace issues. Yet, voice research remains divided on fundamental questions such as underlying purpose. Drawing on the Job Demands‐Resources Model, this study offers an integrative perspective, building on the idea that the interests of employees and managers are distinct concerning the purpose of voice. This article draws on responses from a cross‐sectional national online survey distributed by YouGov, with a survey design that ensured that only those employed within an organisational setting with a reporting structure would be included in the data. The sample size used for the analysis (N = 1858) was representative of the UK workforce regarding gender, full‐ or part‐time work status, organisation size and industry. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis provides empirical evidence of two alternative and distinct voice forms: organisational and employee‐focused. Results show that while organisational voice is associated with significantly higher innovative behaviour and higher levels of burnout, employee‐focused voice is significantly and negatively associated with employee burnout. Lastly, our analysis reveals that while the total effect of organisational voice on burnout is positive, employee‐focused voice, partially mediating the organisational voice‐burnout relationship, exerts a countervailing effect, lowering burnout. Accordingly, organisations are advised to promote both voice forms, given their unique, positive effects, first on the employee (ameliorating burnout) and second on strategically important outcomes (innovative behaviours). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Electoral accountability and selection with personalized information aggregation

We study a model of electoral accountability and selection whereby heterogeneous voters aggregate incumbent politician's performance data into personalized signals through paying limited attention. Extreme voters' signals exhibit an own-party bias, which hampers their ability to discern the good and bad performances of the incumbent. While this effect alone would undermine electoral accountability and selection, there is a countervailing effect stemming from partisan disagreement, which makes the centrist voter more likely to be pivotal. In case the latter's unbiased signal is very informative about the incumbent's performance, the combined effect on electoral accountability and selection can actually be a positive one. For this reason, factors carrying a negative connotation in every political discourse—such as increasing mass polarization and shrinking attention span—could have ambiguous accountability and selection effects. Correlating voters' signals, if done appropriately, unambiguously improves electoral accountability and selection and voter welfare.

Free Riding, Network Effects, and Burden Sharing in Defense Cooperation Networks

AbstractHow do states distribute the burdens of collective defense? This paper develops a network theory of burden sharing. We focus on bilateral defense cooperation agreements (DCAs), which promote cooperation in a variety of defense, military, and security issue areas. Using a computational model, we show that DCA partners’ defense spending depends on the network structure of their agreements. In bilateral terms, DCAs increase defense spending by committing states to defense activities and allowing partners to reciprocally punish free riding. However, as a state's local network of defense partnerships grows more densely connected, with many transitive “friend of a friend” relations, DCAs have the countervailing effect of reducing defense spending. The more deeply integrated states are in bilateral defense networks, the less they spend on defense. We distinguish two potential mechanisms behind this effect—one based on efficiency improvements, the other on free riding. An empirical analysis using multilevel inferential network models points more to efficiency than to free riding. Defense networks reduce defense spending, and they do so by allowing countries to produce security more efficiently.

The countervailing effects of stocks of knowledge on low-carbon innovation through international collaboration

Collaboration plays a crucial role in accelerating low-carbon innovation, which, as an emerging technology, requires knowledge in varied domains from diverse actors across the globe. Whereas previous research has shown that collaboration positively affects low-carbon innovation, the unintended consequence of cumulating stocks of knowledge on low-carbon innovation through international collaboration has been underexplored. To address this issue, we examined the potentially countervailing effect of cumulative stocks of patents on coinvention on low-carbon technology patenting in Korea from 2000 to 2011, employing a count model with panel fixed-effects. The study finds that national and international coinvention have a positive effect on low-carbon technology patenting. The cumulative stocks of knowledge have a negative influence on the development of new low-carbon technology knowledge through such international coinvention. The explicit finding that the cumulative stocks of knowledge can undermine the role of international collaboration on low-carbon innovation has clear policy implications. A country should attempt to diversify its portfolio of low-carbon technology development to fully utilize the role of international collaboration on low-carbon innovation. Furthermore, policy makers should pay keen attention to building and maintaining effective international collaboration to complement a nation's or company's own knowledge base.

Plant-Mediated Behavioural Avoidance of a Weevil Towards Its Biological Control Agent.

New Zealand pastures largely comprising Lolium ryegrass species (Poales: Poaceae) are worth $19.6B and are subject to major pest impacts. A very severe pest is the Argentine stem weevil Listronotus bonariensis (Kuschel) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). This has been previously suppressed by the importation biological control agent, Microctonus hyperodae Loan (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). However, this suppression has recently declined and is subject to investigation. It has been hypothesised that grass type influences the parasitism avoidance behaviour by the weevil and thus parasitism rates. This study explored the hypothesis using three common pasture grasses: a diploid Lolium perenne x Lolium multiflorum hybrid ryegrass (cv. Manawa), a tetraploid Italian ryegrass L. multiflorum Lam. (cv. Tama), and a diploid perennial ryegrass L. perenne L. (cv. Samson). The described laboratory-based microcosm methodology determined the extent of weevil avoidance behaviour on each of these three grasses when subjected to the parasitoid. Such reaction was gauged by the extent of reduced weevil on-plant presence and feeding compared to the control populations. In the absence of the parasitoid, the hybrid cv. Manawa ryegrass is as highly favoured by the weevil as the tetraploid cv. Tama. On diploid cv. Samson, feeding is considerably less. In the presence of the parasitoid, weevils on the tetraploid cv. Tama plants showed little avoidance activity in response to the parasitoid and it can be argued that the benefits of staying on this plant outweighed the possibility of parasitism. Conversely and surprisingly, in the parasitoid’s presence, weevils on diploid cv. Manawa showed very strong avoidance behaviour leading to levels of exposure similar to those found on the less-preferred diploid cv. Samson. These findings reflect how weevil parasitism rates have declined in most Lolium grasses, particularly diploids, since the 1990s, but not in the tetraploid L. multiflorum. This contribution supports the hypothesis that the decline in weevil parasitism rates has been the result of rapid evolution arising from parasitoid-induced selection pressure and the countervailing effect of the nutritional quality of the host plants.

What drives long-term PM2.5-attributable premature mortality change? A case study in central China using high-resolution satellite data from 2003 to 2018.

Ambient PM2.5 was reported to be related to numerous negative health outcomes, leading to adverse public health impacts in many countries such as China. Despite the apparent reduction in PM2.5 levels over China due to its emission control policies in recent years, the health burdens were not reduced as much as expected. This calls for a comprehensive analysis to explain the reasons behind to provide a useful reference for formulating effective emission control strategies. Taking central China as an example due to its large population and high levels of PM2.5, this study quantified the spatiotemporal dynamics of premature mortality associated with PM2.5 pollution in central China for each year during 2003-2018 and applied a decomposition analysis to dissect the contribution of various driving factors including ambient PM2.5 level, demographic distribution and baseline incidence rate of four diseases related to air pollution. Results show significant spatiotemporal variations in PM2.5-attributed health impact in central China, including Henan, Hubei, and Hunan provinces. Five Henan cities had the largest PM2.5-attributable premature mortality (∼8-12K premature mortalities), while three Hubei cities and one Hebei city had the least chronic PM2.5-related all-cause mortality numbers (<1 K mortalities). Throughout the study period, the PM2.5-caused premature mortality decreased by 54K, in which changes in PM2.5 levels and baseline incidence rates of stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease contributed to the positive effect, whereas demographic changes and baseline incidence rate change of ischemic heart disease and lung cancer brought a countervailing effect. Our findings suggest more dynamic and comprehensive policies and measures that take into account spatiotemporal variations of health burden for effective alleviation of the health impact of PM2.5 pollution in the country.

Countervailing effect and mitigation policy: A game-theoretical study in dual international competing photovoltaic supply chains

As the world trade conflict intensifies in the photovoltaic (PV) industry recently, it would be important and timely to investigate the impact of the countervailing measure on the global PV supply chains and the non-conventional trade policy to mitigate the worsening trade effect. A simplified dual international competing PV supply chain system is developed to formulate supply chain game-theoretical models for the investigation. It is found that export subsidy (ES) scenario creates the highest total demands, supply chain profits and social welfare but at the cost of the importing country before it escalates to the most serious countervailing (CD) scenario. The key findings echo the classical trade conflict studies that any unfair trade policy will benefit only the country exercising the policy and will eventually lead to escalation of the trade conflict and bring economic damages to the trading stakeholders. A theoretical policy analysis is conducted to explore the impact on the supply chain when the export subsidizing country shares its economic gains with the importing country who might be planning to levy the countervailing duty on the imported solar product. The finding shows the gain sharing policy is possible to offset the economic loss and hostility of the importing country but still create more economic gains for the export subsidizing country. The gain sharing concept, though still in its theoretical phase, provides a more sustainable policy than the conventional retaliation approach which hinders the global solar supply chain growth, and prolongs the current head-on trade conflict between largest world economies.

In the smoke of the people’s opium: The influence of religious beliefs and activities on protest participation

How does religion shape individual decisions to participate in protests? On the one hand, past literature from Tocqueville’s perspective has suggested that people’s involvement in religious activities leads to engagement in civic activities. On the other hand, the Marxist approach has pointed to the possibility that one’s religious belief may rather lead to decreasing participation in civil society. Combining these two conflicting perspectives, this study examines the influence of religious beliefs and activities on protest participation, an increasingly important form of civic participation in contemporary times. Using the World Values Survey across 48 countries, the author’s findings provide support for the Marxist approach by suggesting that people’s religious beliefs are significantly and negatively associated with one’s participation in protests especially in non-Western religions. Additionally, while the results fail to support the Tocquevillian perspective that one’s religious activities are directly related to protest participation, religious activities do have a countervailing effect by minimizing the negative influence of religious beliefs people hold on protest participation. This study provides important implications to further our understanding on the paradoxical relationship between religion and civic participation.

Pedal Musculovenous Pump Activation Effectively Counteracts Negative Impact of Knee Flexion on Human Popliteal Venous Flow.

Knee scooters are commonly used for mobility instead of other devices. However, passive popliteal venous flow impedance has been observed with knee scooter usage ostensibly as a result of deep knee flexion. This study aimed to characterize the magnitude of impact knee flexion has on popliteal venous flow in relation to the degree of knee flexion when walking boot immobilized. Furthermore, the countervailing effect of standardized pedal musculovenous pump (PMP) activation was observed. Popliteal venous diameter and flow metrics were assessed with venous ultrasonography in 24 healthy individuals. Straight leg, crutch, and knee scooter positioning while wearing a walking boot and non-weight-bearing were compared. Flow was assessed with muscles at rest and with PMP activation. Of 24 participants, 16 (67%) were female. Twelve limbs (50%) were right sided. The mean age was 21.9 (SD = 3.0) years, and the mean body mass index was 21.9 (SD 1.9) kg/m2. Observer consistencies were excellent (intraclass correlation range = 0.93 to 0.99). No significant differences in mean vessel diameter, time-averaged mean velocity, and total volume flow occurred (all P > .01). Corresponding knee flexion effect sizes were small (range = -0.04 to -0.26). A significant decrease (-24%) in active median time-averaged peak velocity occurred between upright and crutch positions (20.89 vs 15.92 cm/s; P < .001) with a medium effect size (-0.51). PMP activation increased all flow parameters (all P < .001), and effect sizes were comparatively larger (>0.6) across all knee flexion positions.Clinical Significance: Knee flexion has a small to medium impact on popliteal venous return in healthy patients. Active toe motion effectively counters the negative effects of gravity and knee flexion when the ankle is immobilized.Levels of Evidence: Therapeutic, Level IV.

Build it and they will cycle: Causal evidence from the downtown Vancouver Comox Greenway

This study evaluated changes in cycling trips before and after the construction of an urban greenway in Vancouver, Canada. Urban cycling has gained in popularity as a healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transport. Carsharing is also on the rise globally, and it has the potential to disrupt urban mobility, including cycling and public transit. In this study, we hypothesized that cycling trips will increase after the opening of the greenway for residents living within 300 meters of the greenway compared to those living further away. We also posited that carsharing membership would have a positive impact on cycling uptake. Data were drawn from a three-year natural experiment study (2012–2015) of the Comox-Helmcken Greenway (“Comox Greenway”) in Vancouver. An experimental-and-control design was employed to compare pre-post differences in cycling trips for residents within 300 m of the greenway (experimental group, n = 239) and those further away (control group, n = 285). The opening of the greenway resulted in a 251% increase in cycling trips for the experimental group compared to the control group. Ethnically white subjects reported 130% more cycling trips than non-white subjects, and those aged 65 and older reported 79% fewer cycling trips than younger age cohorts. Carshare membership reduced the number of cycling trips after the greenway opening. Results suggest that greenways could be an effective strategy to boost urban cycling, and that carsharing programs may have a countervailing effect on cycling. The findings support recent initiatives to reappropriate road space in urban areas for cycling and walking due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Centralnoevropske pripreme za evropske integracije

In addition to the author's scientific work, the study -based on pragmatic experiences -analyses the factors that characterized Central European countries before the change of regime (1990) and then the foreign economic model through which Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia ("Visegrád 4") reached EU membership in 2004. The study highlighted that, with different depths, in all countries concerned economic policies were characterized by liberal bankruptcy regulations and strict conditions of competition, so that they could prove their ability to meet the condition of a functioning market economy for EU membership1. The export-oriented model, built on efficient inflow of foreign direct investment and high-tech in the early 1990s, was implemented by the late 1990s to demonstrate that these states were ready to meet another condition of EU membership, namely to meet the challenges of the internal market.2 This transformation represented a problem for the current account balance in the 1990s (mainly due to the loss of traditional national export capacities) only in the middle of the decade, and it was only at the end of the decade that trade balances showed surplus with the EU. The total external equilibrium of the Visegrád countries was maintained by the fact that the inflow of FDI had not yet started to conclude in the withdrawal of profits from recent investments in Central Europe, and the countervailing effect of EU net transfers, which began to arrive later parallelly with the start of the withdrawal of FDI dividends. The CEFTA co-operation concluded in 1992 followed the economic liberalization timetable of that of the Visegrád Four with the EU parallelly but did not go beyond its depth for political prudence, thus providing full opening to each other only after and through EU membership, more precisely the liberalisation in services or in sensitive agricultural trade. The CEFTA treaty was expanded to the Balkans after 1995 and has been and is still a good example for countries that do not want to stay in an ex-Soviet or ex-Yugoslav economic integration but is a good method for them to prepare for the earliest possible EU membership.

Strategic Allocation of Irrevocable and Durable Benefits

AbstractThe logic behind redistribution theories is that incumbents target benefits to build and sustain linkages with voters. However, a recent literature shows that some benefits can have a countervailing effect in environments plagued by clientelism: by permanently boosting voters' incomes, irrevocable and durable benefits might reduce their dependence on incumbents. This article explains how parties strategically allocate these benefits when trading off the income effect relative to the standard electoral rewards of redistribution. The theory highlights a previously unstudied rationale to target opposition areas: to weaken voters' dependence on machines. The framework is tested with administrative data on the allocation of cisterns by state governments across Brazilian semi‐arid municipalities, where clientelism is rampant. States favor areas governed by copartisans, but only where local clientelistic mobilization is weak. Where it is strong, states favor municipalities led by the opposition, while avoiding their own local strongholds.

In Reply to the Letter to the Editor Regarding “Tactile Skill-Based Neurosurgical Simulators Are Effective and Inexpensive”

Coordination costs in a wholesale electricity market are a relevant public policy consideration. The mitigation of coordination costs, all else equal, should increase participation in the marketplace. Since Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 888 was issued in 1996, the level of trading activity in bulk electricity markets has increased significantly. In 1999, FERC issued Order 2000 to advance the role of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) in the restructured marketplace for wholesale electricity. RTOs have the potential to reduce the coordination costs, while also having the countervailing effect of causing market participants to incur compliance costs. This paper utilizes the diversity of the United States electricity market and a panel data set representing electric utilities for the period 1990–2009 to study the effects that RTOs have had on wholesale electricity exchange. The paper finds that the presence of a transparent wholesale marketplace for electricity has the effect of increasing participation, but this participation is uneven across types of electric utilities. Greater participation is seen for investor-owned and larger utilities. The results have important implications for policy aimed at wholesale markets and the transmission organizations, as the opportunities afforded by transparency may not be uniformly distributed across all market participants.

The Effect of Knee Flexion on Active and Passive Popliteal Venous Flow When Using Crutches or Knee Scooter While Immobilized

Category:Trauma; OtherIntroduction/Purpose:Knee flexion has been demonstrated to impede popliteal venous return with large effect size among patients lying supine for surgery. Passive popliteal flow impedance has also been suggested to occur with knee scooter usage due to knee flexion. This study compared the effect of knee flexion angles on popliteal venous return between upright, crutch and knee scooter positioning when immobilized. Further, the countervailing effect of standardized hallux musculovenous pump activation was observed.Methods:This was an IRB approved study of young, healthy volunteers. Popliteal venous diameter and flow metrics were assessed with venous ultrasonography and compared between straight leg, crutch, and knee scooter positioning while wearing a walking boot and nonweightbearing. Flow was assessed with muscles at rest and with hallux musculovenous pump activation via active oscillation between hallux metatarsophalangeal joint extension and flexion at one motion per second (0.5 Hz) as paced by a metronome. Observer consistency was assessed. Paired-sample Student’s t-test and the Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to assess within-subject differences for diameter and venous flow parameters, respectively. Knee flexion and musculovenous pump activation effects sizes were calculated. A priori sample size indicated 24 subjects were needed to achieve 80% power to detect a significant ( p < 0.006 ) difference in medial flow for any of 8 comparisons, assuming large effect sizes.Results:16 of 24 (67%) subjects were female. Twelve limbs (50%) were right sided. The mean age was 21.9 years (SD 3.0 years) and the mean body mass index was 21.9 (SD 1.9). Observer consistencies were excellent (0.93 to 0.99). No significant differences in mean vessel diameter, time-averaged mean velocity, and total volume flow occurred. Corresponding knee flexion effect sizes were small (range -0.04 to -0.26). A significant decrease (-24%) in active median time-averaged peak velocity (TAPV) occurred between upright and crutch position (20.89 cm/s vs. 15.92 cm/s, p < 0.001) with a medium effect size (-0.51). Hallux musculovenous pump increased all flow parameters (all p< 0.001) and effect sizes were comparatively larger (>0.6) across all knee flexion positions.Conclusion:Compared to values reported for supine individuals, upright passive popliteal venous return was observed to be markedly diminished at all knee flexion angles. Knee flexion had minimal effect on diameter, a small effect in further diminishing TAMV and TVF and a medium effect on diminishing TAPV. Hallux musculovenous pump activiation had a large effect on increasing flow at all knee flexion angles. Patients may well be counseled to use toe motion to counter the negative effects of gravity, and to a lesser extent knee flexion, when using crutches and knee scooters while their ankle is immobilized.

Impact of helmet laws on motorcycle crash mortality rates.

Helmets are effective in reducing traumatic brain injury. However, population effects of helmet laws have not been well described. This study assesses the impact of helmet laws on the motorcycle (MC) fatality rate in the United States from 1999 to 2015. Fatality Analysis Reporting System MC fatalities (aged ≥16 years), crash characteristics, and MC-related laws were collected by year for all 50 states from 1999 to 2015 to create a pooled time series. Generalized linear autoregressive modeling was applied to assess the relative contribution of helmet laws to the MC fatality rate while controlling for other major driver laws and crash characteristics. Universal helmet laws were associated with a 36% to 45% decline in the motorcycle crash mortality rate during the study period across all age cohorts (unstandardized regression coefficients are reported): 16 to 20 years, B = -0.45 (p < 0.05); 21 to 55 years, B = -0.42 (p < 0.001); 56 to 65 years, B = -0.38 (p < 0.04); and older than 65 years, B = -0.36 (p < 0.02). Partial helmet laws were associated with a 1% to 81% increase in the fatality rate compared with states with no helmet laws and a 22% to 45% increase compared with universal laws. Helmet usage did not attenuate the countervailing effect of weaker partial laws for 16 to 20 years (B = 0.01 [p < 0.001]). Other laws associated with a declining motorcycle crash mortality rate included the following: social host/overservice laws, 21 to 55 years (B = -0.38 [p < 0.001]); 56 to 65 years (B = -0.16 [p < 0.002]), and older than 65 years (B = -0.12 [p < 0.003]); laws reducing allowable blood alcohol content, 21 to 55 years (B = -4.9 [p < 0.02]); and laws limiting passengers for new drivers 16 to 20 years (B = -0.06 [p < 0.01]). During the period of the study, universal helmet laws were associated with a declining mortality rate, while partial helmet laws were associated with an increasing mortality rate. Other state driver laws were also associated with a declining rate. In addition to universal helmet laws, advocating for strict alcohol control legislation and reevaluation of licenses in older riders could also result in significant reduction in MC-related mortality. Prognostic and epidemiological, level III.