Hands on the Wheel, Eyes on the Phone: the Effect of Smart Phone Usage on Road Safety

Devi Brands, Joris Klingen and Francis Ostermeijer
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Devi Brands: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Joris Klingen: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Francis Ostermeijer: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

No 20-024/VIII, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: We provide novel evidence on the effect of smart phone 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, which 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 smart phones, 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 K42 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-law, nep-pay, nep-tre and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20200024

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