Golvine de Rochambeau (SciencesPo, Paris) – Motivation for Reckless Driving : Experimental Evidence from Liberia

Road safety is a crucial issue in many low- and middle-countries, where the majority of the world’s traffic fatalities occur, and road traffic death rates are at least twice as high as in high-income countries. This paper focuses on understanding drivers’ behavior towards road safety, particularly their risk-assessment, in Liberia. The study employs a lab-in-the-field experiment with 300 taxi drivers split into three groups: a road safety training group, a business training group, and a control group. Results indicate that business training updates the beliefs of drivers and decreases their locus of control on road safety behavior. In contrast, road safety training has little effect on drivers’ attitudes and beliefs. The study sheds light on the formation of motivated beliefs in the choice of occupation, particularly on how drivers’ beliefs about the impact of their behavior on the probability of accident are formed by their ability to earn a living with this activity.