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  3. American Economic Review: Insights
  4. September 2025
  5. Preferences for Firearms

American Economic Review: Insights

ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)

Preferences for Firearms

  • Sarah Moshary
  • Bradley T. Shapiro
  • Sara Drango
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 7, no. 3, September 2025
(pp. 340–56)
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Abstract

This paper provides a critical input into crafting effective firearms policy: an understanding of consumer demand for guns. We estimate individual-level price sensitivity and substitution patterns across gun types using stated-choice experiments. We find that potential firearm buyers are price insensitive overall but that first-time buyers are the most price sensitive. We also estimate considerable substitution from semiautomatic long guns (sometimes called "assault weapons") to handguns, which are associated with more crimes per gun.

Citation

Moshary, Sarah, Bradley T. Shapiro, and Sara Drango. 2025. "Preferences for Firearms." American Economic Review: Insights 7 (3): 340–56. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20230435

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
  • D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
  • K23 Regulated Industries and Administrative Law
  • K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
  • L51 Economics of Regulation
  • L64 Other Machinery; Business Equipment; Armaments
  • M31 Marketing