When left is ‘right’! The impact of driving-side practice on road fatalities in Africa

In this paper, the authors try to understand the impact of a traffic convention, rule of the road, on road fatality rate in Africa. Using the country level panel data on road fatality rates provided by World Health Organization, they try to find whether left side driving rule has any differential causal impact on road fatalities. To address issues related to endogeneity, they instrument ‘Left Side Driving Rule’ with the measure for ‘British Colonization’. The authors' estimates suggest that the left side driving rule results in lesser road fatalities when compared to the right side driving rule. The illegal usage of ‘Right Hand Drive’ vehicles in right side driving countries and functional superiority of left side driving rule are the potential channels causing this effect. With Africa bearing the highest ‘disease burden’ of traffic fatalities in the world, their research provides a preliminary empirical insight into the role that ‘rule of the road’ traffic convention can play in this regard.

Language

  • English

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01787282
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Nov 5 2021 11:54AM