Mary J. Becker, Lindsay N. Calkins, Walter Simmons, Andrew M. Welki and Thomas J. Zlatoper
This paper analyzes the impact of obesity on the probability of a motor vehicle fatality (highway death rate) and on its component probabilities: the probability of a fatality…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes the impact of obesity on the probability of a motor vehicle fatality (highway death rate) and on its component probabilities: the probability of a fatality, given a crash (vulnerability rate) and the probability of a crash (crash rate).
Design/methodology/approach
Using state-level data for 1995–2015, the paper estimates models explaining all three rates. Explanatory factors include obesity and a representative set of potential determinants.
Findings
Results indicate that obesity has a statistically significant positive relationship with the highway death rate and the crash rate. Also having a statistically significant positive association with at least one of the three rates are the proportions of young and old drivers, alcohol consumption, the ratio of rural to urban vehicle miles and temperature. Factors with a statistically significant negative relationship with at least one of the rates include primary seat belt laws and precipitation. In 2016, a total of 928 traffic fatalities could have been avoided if obesity rates decreased by one percentage point.
Practical implications
Seat belts and crash dummies should be better designed to fit and represent those with higher BMIs, and education efforts to increase seat belt use should be supplemented with information about the adverse impact of obesity on highway safety.
Originality/value
This paper uses 21 years of state-level information, including socio-economic and regulation data, and contributes to the existing research on the relationship between obesity and highway safety.
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Walter O. Simmons and Thomas J. Zlatoper
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the linkage between obesity and motor vehicle deaths.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the linkage between obesity and motor vehicle deaths.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper specifies a model that explains highway fatalities, which accounts for obesity in its set of potential determinants. State‐level data are utilized in this paper. The values for all variables are for the year 2005. They correspond to 46 of the contiguous states for all measures. The model is estimated by multiple regressions.
Findings
The paper finds that the motor vehicle death rate (fatalities per million vehicle miles) has a statistically significant positive relationship with the percentage of the population that is obese. The death rate also has significant positive associations with the percentage of elderly male drivers, per capita alcohol consumption, and temperature; and it has significant negative relationships with per capita income, the percentage of elderly female drivers, seat belt use, and precipitation.
Practical implications
The estimates of this paper have various policy implications. For example, the findings pertaining to occupant body weight imply that efforts leading to a decline in the prevalence of obesity will also lower the highway death risk. Results suggest that obesity increases this death risk by contributing to more accidents. If so, measures that reduce obesity‐related unsafe driving behaviors (e.g. increased chance of falling asleep while driving) could save lives.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the research on the relationship between highway safety and obesity. The paper's unique contributions include estimating the linkage between obesity and motor vehicle deaths by regression analysis on US state‐level data for 2005 within a model that controls for economic conditions and other considerations such as driver and passenger characteristics, locational factors, government regulations, and weather conditions.
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This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and…
Abstract
This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and economic characteristics of the league's markets, and changes in the number of teams in the league. The research relies on a sample that includes 707 non-major professional team seasonal win-loss records (12,956 games) from five sports, aggregated into 75 seasons to develop a model consistent with extant literature. The authors find that competitive balance and average income in the league's markets are significant predictors of leaguewide attendance.
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Eiichi Taniguchi, Russell G Thompson, Tadashi Yamada and Ron Van Duin