IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v88y2024ics1043951x24001500.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does air pollution cause more car accidents? Evidence from auto insurance claims

Author

Listed:
  • Deng, Yongheng
  • He, Jia
  • Li, Bingqing
  • Shen, Xixi

Abstract

Using a proprietary data set of auto insurance claims from May 2014 to December 2016, this paper examines the influence of air pollution on the number and severity of traffic accidents in China. Combining an instrumental variable strategy with high-dimensional fixed effects, we find that air pollution significantly increases the occurrence of traffic accidents, with each 1 μg/m3 increase in the particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) resulting in a 0.12 % increase in traffic accident probability and a 0.40 % increase in traffic accident number within one day. A different pattern is revealed in our analysis of accident severity, evidenced by a decrease of 1.20 % in the average claim ratio compared to its mean value and a reduction of 26 yuan in the average claim amount made with an increase of 1 μg/m3 in PM2.5. Combining the effect on the number and severity of traffic accidents, for each 1 μg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5, the district daily claim amount decreases by approximately 34 yuan. Further analysis indicates that this may be related to cautious driving behavior resulting from the driver's increased risk aversion. By exercising caution and care on the road, drivers can reduce the negative influence of air pollution on road safety and avoid non-subjective behavioral biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Deng, Yongheng & He, Jia & Li, Bingqing & Shen, Xixi, 2024. "Does air pollution cause more car accidents? Evidence from auto insurance claims," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:88:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001500
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X24001500
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102261?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air pollution; Car accidents; Accident severity; Risk preference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:88:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001500. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.