Models explaining motor vehicle death rates in the United States

This paper is a selective survey of models explaining motor vehicle death rates in the United States. First, it reviews Peltzman's 1975 study of the effect of automobile safety regulation and critiques of the study. Then it summarizes several subsequent statistical studies of highway fatalities. The surveyed studies are typically regression analyses of the impact of various factors on motor vehicle deaths. They are categorized in this paper according to which of three types of data they utilized: time-series; cross-sectional; or pooled time-series, cross-sectional. This paper notes what can be inferred collectively from the surveyed studies regarding the impacts of various factors on highway fatalities. It also discusses certain shortcomings of the studies in general along with possible remedies, and makes recommendations regarding future research. Tabular summaries of the statistical studies surveyed in this paper are included in the Appendix.