IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v43y2011i10p2492-2503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corruption, Automobility Cultures, and Road Traffic Deaths: The Perfect Storm in Rapidly Motorizing Countries?

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Wells
  • Malcolm J Beynon

Abstract

This paper explores the hitherto neglected combined contribution of automobility cultures and corruption to prevailing death and injury rates from road traffic, with an emphasis on developing countries. Automobility cultures are argued to be crucial to real-world death and injury rates. The paper then argues that indices of public corruption may be taken as a more general proxy for the extent of traffic rule observance and risky behaviours by all classes of road user. Data on relative corruption at the national level are compared with data on road traffic deaths—both reported and adjusted. The latter seek to account for potential underreporting and definitional differences. The paper concludes that policy needs to be sensitized to local cultures, and to extend beyond issues related to the engineering of cars or infrastructures if social attitudes are to be changed, and the rate of deaths and injuries reduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Wells & Malcolm J Beynon, 2011. "Corruption, Automobility Cultures, and Road Traffic Deaths: The Perfect Storm in Rapidly Motorizing Countries?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(10), pages 2492-2503, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:10:p:2492-2503
    DOI: 10.1068/a4498
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a4498
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a4498?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nardon, Luciara & Aten, Kathryn, 2008. "Beyond a better mousetrap: A cultural analysis of the adoption of ethanol in Brazil," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 261-273, July.
    2. Daniel Albalate, 2008. "Lowering blood alcohol content levels to save lives: The European experience," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 20-39.
    3. Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge & Tungodden, Bertil, 2003. "Fiscal Corruption: A Vice or a Virtue?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 1459-1467, August.
    4. Anderson, Michael, 2008. "Safety for whom? The effects of light trucks on traffic fatalities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 973-989, July.
    5. Vereeck, Lode & Vrolix, Klara, 2007. "The social willingness to comply with the law: The effect of social attitudes on traffic fatalities," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 385-408, December.
    6. Raymond Fisman & Edward Miguel, 2006. "Cultures of Corruption: Evidence From Diplomatic Parking Tickets," NBER Working Papers 12312, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Peter E. Wells, 2010. "The Automotive Industry in an Era of Eco-Austerity," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13835.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Whitmarsh, Lorraine, 2012. "How useful is the Multi-Level Perspective for transport and sustainability research?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 483-487.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & Fageda, Xavier, 2015. "Are traffic violators criminals? Searching for answers in the experiences of European countries," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 86-94.
    2. Sebastian Martinez & Raul Sanchez & Patricia Yañez-Pagans, 2019. "Road safety: challenges and opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-30, December.
    3. Daniel Albalate, 2013. "The Road against Fatalities: Infrastructure Spending vs. Regulation?," ERSA conference papers ersa13p221, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & Fageda, Xavier, 2016. "Exploring the relationship between truck load capacity and traffic accidents in the European Union," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 94-109.
    5. Brigitte Granville & Jaume Martorell Cruz & Martha Prevezer, 2015. "Elites, Thickets and Institutions: French Resistance versus German Adaptation to Economic Change, 1945-2015," Working Papers 63, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    6. Mark Gius, 2009. "Fuel Efficiency and the Determinants of Traffic Fatalities: A Comparison of Empirical Models," New York Economic Review, New York State Economics Association (NYSEA), vol. 40(1), pages 13-27.
    7. Juan Jiménez & Jordi Perdiguero, 2012. "Does Rigidity of Prices Hide Collusion?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 41(3), pages 223-248, November.
    8. Tyndall, Justin, 2021. "Pedestrian deaths and large vehicles," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 26.
    9. Pande, Rohini, 2008. "Understanding Political Corruption in Low Income Countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 50, pages 3155-3184, Elsevier.
    10. von Soest, Christian, 2006. "Measuring the Capability to Raise Revenue: Process and Output Dimensions and Their Application to the Zambia Revenue Authority," GIGA Working Papers 35, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    11. Oriana Bandiera & Andrea Prat & Tommaso Valletti, 2009. "Active and Passive Waste in Government Spending: Evidence from a Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1278-1308, September.
    12. Guiso, Luigi & Zingales, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola, 2010. "Civic Capital as the Missing Link," CEPR Discussion Papers 7757, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Daniel Albalate del sol, 2015. "Evaluating HSR availability on Tourism: Evidence from Spanish Provinces and Cities," ERSA conference papers ersa15p288, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Antonio Manresa & Ferran Sancho, 2012. "Leontief versus Ghosh: two faces of the same coin," Working Papers XREAP2012-18, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Oct 2012.
    15. Lauren E. Jones & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2017. "U.S. Child Safety Seat Laws: Are they Effective, and Who Complies?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 584-607, June.
    16. repec:idq:ictduk:13711 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Van Ommeren, Jos & Rietveld, Piet & Zagha Hop, Jack & Sabir, Muhammad, 2013. "Killing kilos in car accidents: Are external costs of car weight internalised?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 86-93.
    18. Artis, Michael & Moreno, Rosina & Miguelez, Ernest, 2009. "Assessing agglomeration economies in a spatial framework with endogenous regressors," CEPR Discussion Papers 7267, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Anita K Zonebia & Arief Anshory Yusuf & Heriyaldi, 2015. "Income and Education as the determinants of Anti-Corruption Attitudes: Evidence from Indonesia," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 201502, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised Apr 2015.
    20. Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, 2013. "Taxation and Development: a Review of Donor Support to Strengthen Tax Systems in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-010, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, 2006. "Corruption in Tax Administration: Lessons from Institutional Reforms in Uganda," Chapters, in: Susan Rose-Ackerman (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:43:y:2011:i:10:p:2492-2503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.