New Findings from University Pablo of Olavide in the Area of Risk Management Reported (Road accidents and business cycles in Spain)

Insurance Weekly News

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Researchers detail new data in Risk Management. According to news reporting from Seville, Spain, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "This paper explores the causes behind the downturn in road accidents in Spain across the last decade. Possible causes are grouped into three categories: Institutional factors (a Penalty Point System, PPS, dating from 2006), technological factors.(active safety and passive safety of vehicles), and macroeconomic factors (the Great recession starting in 2008, and ah increase in fuel prices during the spring of 2008)."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University Pablo of Olavide, "The PPS has been blessed by incumbent authorities as responsible for the decline of road fatalities in Spain. Using cointegration techniques, the GDP growth rate, the fuel price, the PPS, and technological items embedded in motor vehicles appear to be statistically significantly related with accidents. Importantly, PPS is found to be significant in reducing fatal accidents. However, PPS is not significant for non-fatal accidents. In view of these results, we conclude that road accidents in Spain are very sensitive to the business cycle, and that the PPS influenced the severity (fatality) rather than the quantity of accidents in Spain."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Importantly, technological items help explain a sizable fraction in accidents downturn, their effects dating back from the end of the nineties."

For more information on this research see: Road accidents and business cycles in Spain. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2016;96():46-55. Accident Analysis and Prevention can be contacted at: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Accident Analysis and Prevention - www.journals.elsevier.com/accident-analysis-and-prevention/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. Rodriguez-Lopez, Univ Pablo Olavide, Dept. of Econ Metodos Cuantitat & Hist Econ, Seville 41013, Spain. Additional authors for this research include G.A. Marrero, R.M. Gonzalez and T. Leal-Linares.