IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/transj/v57y2018i2p193-218.html

Estimating the Relative Efficiency of Highway Safety Investments on Commercial Transportation

Author

Listed:
  • Yao‐Te Tsai
  • Stephen M. Swartz
  • Fadel M. Megahed

Abstract

Highway safety has been one of the most important public policy issues discussed in recent years. Accidents involving commercial vehicles result in many negative effects, both personal and economic. Although the numbers of highway accidents have been declining in the past decade, many people still suffer from the effects of severe highway accidents. As public policymakers struggle to improve safety on our highway system, they are looking for analytical tools to help them assess and leverage the impact of scarce public resources. This research effort used data envelopment analysis (DEA) for benchmarking the efficiency of public policy factors (regulatory and financial) known to have an influence on safety performance. The results of this research can provide objective safety performance and improvement recommendations for commercial transportation and therefore serve to be instructive to those states with lower levels of safety performance. Our findings suggest that government agencies could focus on more effective policymaking (emphasizing road condition improvement and capital outlay utilization vs. other investments) to reduce highway fatality rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Yao‐Te Tsai & Stephen M. Swartz & Fadel M. Megahed, 2018. "Estimating the Relative Efficiency of Highway Safety Investments on Commercial Transportation," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(2), pages 193-218, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:transj:v:57:y:2018:i:2:p:193-218
    DOI: 10.5325/transportationj.57.2.0193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.5325/transportationj.57.2.0193
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5325/transportationj.57.2.0193?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. David E. Cantor & Thomas M. Corsi & Curtis M. Grimm & Prabhjot Singh, 2016. "Technology, Firm Size, and Safety: Theory and Empirical Evidence from the US Motor‐carrier Industry," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(2), pages 149-167, April.
    2. Dara Lee Luca, 2015. "Do Traffic Tickets Reduce Motor Vehicle Accidents? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 85-106, January.
    3. Corsi, Thomas M. & Grimm, Curtis M. & Cantor, David E. & Sienicki, Dale, 2012. "Safety performance differences between unionized and non-union motor carriers," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 807-816.
    4. Rodrigo A. Britto & Thomas M. Corsi & Curtis M. Grimm, 2010. "The Relationship between Motor Carrier Financial Performance and Safety Performance," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(4), pages 42-51, September.
    5. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    6. Stephen M. Swartz & Matthew A. Douglas & Matthew D. Roberts & Robert E. Overstreet, 2017. "Leavin' on My Mind: Influence of Safety Climate on Truck Drivers' Job Attitudes and Intentions to Leave," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(2), pages 184-209, April.
    7. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    8. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1979. "Measuring the efficiency of decision-making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 339-338, July.
    9. Fare, Rolf & Shawna Grosskopf & Mary Norris & Zhongyang Zhang, 1994. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 66-83, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Thompson, Russell G. & Brinkmann, Emile J. & Dharmapala, P. S. & Gonzalez-Lima, M. D. & Thrall, Robert M., 1997. "DEA/AR profit ratios and sensitivity of 100 large U.S. banks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 213-229, April.
    2. Kao, Chiang, 2010. "Malmquist productivity index based on common-weights DEA: The case of Taiwan forests after reorganization," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 484-491, December.
    3. Huang, Zhangyang & Yang, Yang & Lu, Xin & Wang, Zurui & Li, Youlin & Wang, Shiji & Yang, Xiangyu, 2026. "Natural gas pipeline integrity management efficiency evaluation and prediction: A DEA-Malmquist-ML approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Betser-Nahum, Yifat & BenDavid-Hadar, Iris, 2025. "The municipalities efficiency in Israel: The case of the provision of educational services," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    5. David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 2000. "Why do Banks Disappear? The Determinants of U.S. Bank Failures and Acquisitions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 127-138, February.
    6. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    7. Silvia Saravia-Matus & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Sreejith Aravindakshan & Stefan Sieber & Jimmy A. Saravia & Sergio Gomez y Paloma, 2021. "Can Enhancing Efficiency Promote the Economic Viability of Smallholder Farmers? A Case of Sierra Leone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    8. Yongqi Feng & Haolin Zhang & Yung-ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang, 2021. "Innovation efficiency and the impact of the institutional quality: a cross-country analysis using the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network DEA model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3091-3129, April.
    9. Jens J. Krüger, 2020. "Long‐run productivity trends: A global update with a global index," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1393-1412, November.
    10. Yu-Chuan Chen & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang & Tai-Yu Lin, 2023. "Sustainable Development, Government Efficiency, and People’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1549-1578, April.
    11. Manogna R. L. & Aswini Kumar Mishra, 2022. "Agricultural production efficiency of Indian states: Evidence from data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4244-4255, October.
    12. Don U.A. Galagedera & Piyadasa Edirisuriya, 2004. "Performance of Indian commercial banks (1995-2002): an application of data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index," Finance 0408006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Chen, Xiaodong & Miao, Zhuang & Wu, Ge & Zhu, Pengyu, 2024. "City-level green growth accounting: Evidence from China's thirteen urban agglomerations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    14. Ali Kabasakal & Aziz Kutlar & Murat Sarikaya, 2015. "Efficiency determinations of the worldwide railway companies via DEA and contributions of the outputs to the efficiency and TFP by panel regression," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 23(1), pages 69-88, March.
    15. Mohsen Afsharian & Anna Kryvko & Peter Reichling, 2011. "Efficiency and Its Impact on the Performance of European Commercial Banks," FEMM Working Papers 110018, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    16. Korhonen, Pekka J. & Dehnokhalaji, Akram & Nasrabadi, Nasim, 2018. "A lexicographic radial projection onto the efficient frontier in Data Envelopment Analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(3), pages 1005-1012.
    17. Claire Murong Cui & Julie A. Harrison & Frederick Ng & Paul Rouse, 2025. "Accounting choices in data envelopment analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 219-237, April.
    18. Valentina Bosetti & Mariaester Cassinelli & Alessandro Lanza, 2007. "Benchmarking in Tourism Destinations; Keeping in Mind the Sustainable Paradigm," Springer Books, in: Álvaro Matias & Peter Nijkamp & Paulo Neto (ed.), Advances in Modern Tourism Research, chapter 0, pages 165-180, Springer.
    19. M. Lábaj & M. Luptáčik & E. Nežinský, 2014. "Data envelopment analysis for measuring economic growth in terms of welfare beyond GDP," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 407-424, August.
    20. C A Zuniga-Gonzalez & J L Quiroga-Canaviri & J J Brambila-Paz & S G Ceballos-Pérez & M M Rojas-Rojas, 2024. "Formulation of an innovative model for the bioeconomy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(11), pages 1-23, November.

    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:wly:transj:v:57:y:2018:i:2:p:193-218. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (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.