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On the identification of the effect of prohibiting hand-held cell phone use while driving: Comment

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  • Sampaio, Breno

Abstract

In a paper recently published in this journal (Nikolaev, A.G., Robbins, M.J., Jacobson, S.H., 2010. Evaluating the impact of legislation prohibiting hand-held cell phone use while driving. Transportation Research Part A 44, 182-193.), Nikolaev et al. (2010) provide evidences on the effect of hand-held cell phone bans on driving safety. More specifically, they analyze the impact of a state-wide ban on hand-held cell phone use while driving on the number of fatal automobile and personal injury accidents per 100,000 licensed drivers per year and conclude that the ban had a significant negative impact on both the mean fatal accident rate and the mean personal injury accident rate. In this paper I argue that they lack of a good identification strategy that enables them to correctly identify the causal effect of the ban. I also provide evidence that the effect they find is a combination of the ban effect and of unobservable variables not accounted for in their analysis. Finally, I provide a way where one can control for unobservables when estimating the causal effect of the ban and find that indeed that ban appears to have a negative effect on fatal automobile accidents.

Suggested Citation

  • Sampaio, Breno, 2010. "On the identification of the effect of prohibiting hand-held cell phone use while driving: Comment," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 766-770, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:44:y:2010:i:9:p:766-770
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Leandro Rocco & Breno Sampaio, 2016. "Are handheld cell phone and texting bans really effective in reducing fatalities?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 853-876, September.
    2. J. Bradley Karl & Charles M. Nyce & Lawrence Powell & Boyi Zhuang, 2023. "How risky is distracted driving?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 279-312, June.
    3. Rahi Abouk & Scott Adams, 2013. "Texting Bans and Fatal Accidents on Roadways: Do They Work? Or Do Drivers Just React to Announcements of Bans?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 179-199, April.
    4. Jacobson, Sheldon H. & King, Douglas M. & Ryan, Kevin C. & Robbins, Matthew J., 2012. "Assessing the long term benefit of banning the use of hand-held wireless devices while driving," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1586-1593.

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