The Economic Impact of Road Accidents: The Case of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to disclose accident-related indices and investigate the extent to which the road accidents impact on the economic performance of Sri Lanka during the period from 1977 to 2016. Annual time-series data are used to evaluate the accident indices for econometric analysis. Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) unit root analysis and Johansen’s maximum likelihood estimator of the parameters of a cointegrating vector error correction model (VECM) are employed to test the stationary properties of the time series and to examine the long-run relationship between the variables, respectively. The results derived from the analysis confirm the existence of long-run relationship between the accident-related indices and macroeconomic indicators. The long-run elasticity values imply the signs and magnitude of impact of the accident indices on macroeconomic indicators. JEL: R41, H510, I310, I32