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Air quality and risky behaviors on roads

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  • Shr, Yau-Huo
  • Hsu, Wen
  • Hwang, Bing-Fang
  • Jung, Chau-Ren

Abstract

This paper provides the first evidence showing that air pollution can reduce life-threatening risky behaviors. We study the impact of air pollution on traffic accidents caused by risky driving behaviors, using the universe of accident records and high-resolution air quality data of Taiwan from 2009 to 2015. We find that air pollution significantly decreases accidents with casualties caused by driver violations, and that this effect is nonlinear. In addition, such negative effects are only observed in time when road users can visually assess air pollution levels, suggesting that air quality primarily reduces road users’ risky behaviors through visual channels rather than through the respiratory system.

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  • Shr, Yau-Huo & Hsu, Wen & Hwang, Bing-Fang & Jung, Chau-Ren, 2023. "Air quality and risky behaviors on roads," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:118:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000049
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102786
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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Yue & Zhao, Qunshan & Wang, Mingshu, 2024. "High-resolution traffic flow data from the urban traffic control system in Glasgow," OSF Preprints qgf2j, Center for Open Science.
    2. Yau‐Huo (Jimmy) Shr & Feng‐An Yang, 2023. "Public health crisis and risky road behaviors," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 1205-1219, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air pollution; Risk preferences; Traffic accidents; Instrumental variable;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

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