Social Impacts of International Trade on the Chinese Transport Sector

Abstract

The World Health Organization sees traffic injuries as a global health and development problem predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. This study uses input-output techniques to shed light on the impact of international trade on the Chinese transport sector and its consequences for the lives of Chinese transport workers and the general population. We calculate the direct and indirect transport-accident footprints associated with products consumed domestically and internationally. Transport-accident footprints are comprised of fatal and nonfatal accidents from the transport sector. Our study finds that half of the accidents in the transport sector's footprint are embodied within exports to the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Germany, and Korea in the electronics, clothes, and minerals sectors. The study also shows that countries with a small population and high income have the highest per capita embodied accidents in the transport footprint of their imports from China. This study demonstrates that when considering the impacts of consumption in global trade, the social impact of production—in this case of transport accidents associated with production—must be considered.