Hands on the wheel, eyes on the phone: The effect of smartphone usage fees on road safety

Devi Brands, Joris Klingen and Francis Ostermeijer

European Economic Review, 2022, vol. 146, issue C

Abstract: We provide novel evidence on the effect of smartphone use on road accidents. We exploit variation in phone usage fees in the Netherlands following a change in European Union (EU) roaming regulations implemented in 2017. The growth rate of mobile data roaming increased substantially after the change, while vehicle kilometres travelled remained stable. This allows us to estimate a difference-in-differences model where non-Dutch drivers from the EU are treated, while Dutch drivers serve as control group. Our results suggest that around 10% of vehicles involved in accidents can be explained by the use of smartphones, and that these accidents mainly happen on urban roads.

Keywords: Road safety; Accident risk; Smart phones; Urban roads (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 K32 K42 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:146:y:2022:i:c:s0014292122000629

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2022.104130

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