Summertime and the drivin’ is easy? Daylight saving time and vehicle accidents

Ioannis Laliotis (), Giuseppe Moscelli and Vassilis Monastiriotis

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We investigate how exogenous variation in daylight caused by Daylight Saving Time affects road safety as measured by the count of vehicle crashes. We use administrative daily data from Greece covering the universe of all types of recorded vehicle accidents during the 2006–2016 period. Our regression discontinuity estimates support an ambient light mechanism that reduces the counts of serious vehicle accidents during the Spring transition and increases the count of minor ones during the Fall transition. The effects are driven from the hour intervals that are mostly affected from seasonal clock changes. We then discuss the potential cost implications of those seasonal transitions. In light of the talks about abolishing seasonal clock changes in the European Union (EU), our findings are policy relevant and can inform the public debate as empirical evidence for the block is scarce.

Keywords: daylight saving time; regression discontinuity; vehicle accidents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2023-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-tre
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Health Economics (United Kingdom), 1, October, 2023, 32(10), pp. 2192 - 2215. ISSN: 1057-9230

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119374/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Summertime and the drivin’ is easy? Daylight Saving Time and Vehicle Accidents (2019)
Working Paper: Summertime and the drivin’ is easy? Daylight Saving Time and vehicle accidents (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:119374

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