New paper looking at the impact of Uber on road safety. Given the variation in the timing of when Uber entered in different municipalities, the authors use an event study model (and several robustness checks) to determine the causal impact of Uber on road safety. The authors find that the introduction of Uber reduced traffic fatality by aprox. 10% and traffic-related hospitalization rates by aprox. 17% in Brazilian cities.

Barreto, Y., Neto, R. D. M. S., & Carazza, L. (2021). Uber and Traffic Safety: Evidence from Brazilian Cities. Journal of Urban Economics, Volume 123, May 2021, 103347.

Abstract

In this paper we estimate the causal effect of the introduction of Uber, an app designed to provide urban transportation services, on traffic-related fatalities and hospitalizations in Brazilian cities. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the company across cities, our research applies a difference-in-differences design and an event study specification using quarterly panel data from 2011 to 2016. Our results indicate that Uber’s introduction reduced by roughly 10% and 17%, respectively, traffic fatality and hospitalization rates in Brazilian cities. The results are robust to different specifications and falsification tests, and to the best of our knowledge, are the first estimates of this effect in a developing country.