The Effects of Driving Restrictions on Air Quality and Driver Behavior

Maria Carnovale and Matthew Gibson

University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, UC San Diego

Abstract: We evaluate whether driving restrictions improve air quality. While Milan's restriction decreases overall air pollution, there is a significant behavioral response that attenuates the effect. Our study expoits the natural experiment created by an unanticipated court injunction suspending Milan's restriction. Drivers respond to the restriction with: 1) intertemporal substituion toward the unpriced period; 2) substitution toward exempt vehicles; and 3) spatial substitution toward unpriced roads. Importantly, the net effect on traffic varies with public transit availability.

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; spatial substitution; air pollution; air quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-res, nep-tre and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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