Beyond Junk Touching: TSA Economics

Nate Silver wonders whether the new scanners will decrease air travel:

In the past, more cumbersome security procedures have had deleterious effects on passenger demand. A study by three professors at Cornell University found, for instance, that when the T.S.A. began to require checked baggage to be screened in late 2002, it reduced overall passenger traffic by about 6 percent. (You can actually see these effects a bit when looking at the air traffic statistics: passenger traffic on U.S.-based airlines dropped by about 6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the first quarter of 2003 greater than the usual seasonal variance even though the economy was recovering and travelers were starting to get over the fear brought on by the Sept. 11 attacks.)

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