Italian “Homicide Road Law”: Evidence of a Puzzle?

Marcello Basili and Filippo Belloc ()

Department of Economics University of Siena from Department of Economics, University of Siena

Abstract: We analyse the effectiveness of Law 41/2016 (the so-called “homicide road law”), introduced in Italy in 2016 with the aim of reducing dangerous driving on Italian roads, through a system of escalating sanctioning, where the severity of the punishment is based on the type of injury caused by the road accident. We first explore theoretically the two-sided effect of Law 41/2016, in terms of general and marginal deterrence. Then, we exploit micro-data on the entire universe of road accidents in Italy in the period before and after Law 41/2016 and measure its effectiveness in reducing the number of fatal outcomes. The estimation results unveil that, after the introduction of Law 41/2016, both the extensive and the intensive margin of deaths in road accidents was not reduced, while, if anything, a weakly significant increase is observed in the extensive margin. The study may contribute to the optimal design of driving regulation both in Italy and in other countries.

Keywords: Homicide Road Law; Vertical Deterrence; Marginal Deterrence; Escalating Penalties; Hybrid Sanctions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-law and nep-tre
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:usi:wpaper:781

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