Ruhm (1996) considered the effect of beer taxes and a variety of alcohol-control policies on motor vehicle fatality rates. The data is for 48 states (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia) over the period 1982-1988. Some of the variables in this data set can be downloaded from the Stock and Watson (2003) web site at www.aw.com/stock_watson. Using this data set

(a) Replicate the descriptive statistics given in Table 1 of \(\operatorname{Ruhm}(1996\)).

(b) Replicate to the extent possible the results in Table 2 of Ruhm (1996), and verify that beer tax is effective in reducing motor vehicle fatality rates, whereas the breath test law is not. How are the standard errors affected by using the robust option for the variance-covariance matrix?

(c) Test the significance of the state and time dummies. What do you conclude?