Citation

Giulietti C, Tonin M, Vlassopoulos M. J. Health Econ. 2020; 70: e102245.

Affiliation

University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom; IZA, Bonn, Germany. Electronic address: M.Vlassopoulos@soton.ac.uk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102245

PMID

32006856

Abstract

This paper provides evidence that daily fluctuations in the stock market have important - and hitherto neglected - spillover effects on fatal car accidents. Using the universe of fatal car accidents in the United States from 1990 to 2015, we find that a one standard deviation reduction in daily stock market returns is associated with a 0.6% increase in fatal car accidents that happen after the stock market opening. A battery of falsification tests supports a causal interpretation of this finding. Our results are consistent with immediate emotions stirred by a negative stock market performance influencing the number of fatal accidents, in particular among inexperienced investors.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Car accidents; Emotions; Stock market