Seminars Health Economics Network at Örebro University and Region Örebro (HEN-ORURO)

A Tall Tale? Driver Height and Traffic Fatalities

Date: January 23

Time: 13:30-14:30

Place: N4065 and Zoom
Join Zoom Meeting https://oru-se.zoom.us/j/64421735032

Speaker: Daniela Andrén, Örebro University. Co-authors: Luca Bossi (University of Pennsylvania) & Gulcin Gumus (Florida Atlantic University and IZA).

Despite recent advances in vehicle safety, traffic fatalities constitute one of the top causes of death in the United States. In this paper, using data from the 2000-2019 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), we provide evidence that driver height is related to traffic fatalities. Specifically, we examine the relationship between driver height and the traffic hazards it poses to others, in a way that has not been explored before. First, we define driver height relative to the gender-specific height distribution in the contemporary population and use a structural model to estimate relative riskiness of being involved in a fatal crash. Our findings indicate that taller male (female) drivers have 41.6% (83.1%) relatively higher riskiness and thus are more likely to be involved in fatal traffic crashes compared to their shorter counterparts. Next, we focus on pairs of drivers in two-vehicle crashes and find that a one standard deviation increase in opposite driver height is associated with an approximately 4% increase in the number of fatalities and about 2.6\% increase in the probability of driver's death in own vehicle. Both sets of findings are statistically significant and robust to a series of checks. We also explore a few potential mechanisms including vehicle size and risky driving behaviors.