The Model of Simultaneous Effects of Two Economic Macroscale Variables, GDP and Gasoline Price, on Road Traffic Fatalities by Panel Data

Investigating the effects of socioeconomic macroscale factors on road traffic fatalities is a useful step for adopting accurate economic decisions,reducing damages of these accidents in countries. But due to the distinct economic level,position of countries,these effects are different. This paper has paid to investigate the simultaneous relationship between gasoline price,GDP with traffic fatalities. The data used in this paper are the panel data of 91 countries spanning 2000-2014. In analyzing these data that applied separately for OECD,non-OECD countries,have used one of the proper models in econometrics titled "vector autoregressive model (VAR)". The results revealed in both groups of countries,with quite different trends,increase in gasoline price,GDP per capita significantly lead to decrease in traffic fatalities rate. This decrease is more especially about gasoline price in OECD countries. The reason for these results can be the removal unnecessary trips,increase in public transportation utility in effect of gasoline price increase,improve traffic safety conditions in effect of an increase in GDP.