In an article published in 2011, Aneja, Donohue and Zhang found that shall-issue or right-to-carry (RTC) concealed weapons laws have no effect on any crime except for a positive effect on assault. This paper reports a replication of their basic findings and some corresponding robustness checks,...

We estimate several models of handguns and crime based on state-level panel data for 1977–1998 using both General Social Survey data on gun availability and a new measure of handgun prevalence. We find that handguns have a negligible effect on crime. Apparently, there is either no causation...

There are a large number of studies indicating that “shall-issue” laws reduce crime. Only one study, by Ayres and Donohue, implies that these laws lead to an overall increase in crime. We apply an improved version of the Ayres and Donohue methodology to a more complete data set. We find that...

In an article titled “The Impact of Right-to-Carry Laws and the NRC Report: Lessons for the Empirical Evaluation of Law and Policy” published in the American Law and Economics Review in 2011, Abhay Aneja, John Donohue III, and Alexandria Zhang report on their inability to replicate...

Although control variables are the reason for multiple regression, surprising little attention is given to the process of locating and selecting the controls. If important controls are omitted, estimates can be biased and inconsistent whereas using too many controls can reduce efficiency and...