Social Capital and Hit-and-Run Road Accidents: Evidence from Italy

Abstract

We use data on Italian road accidents involving pedestrians in the period 2000–2016 to study the link between social capital and the driver’s decision to flee. Running away is a serious crime which affects the victim’s probability to survive after the accident. We merge detailed police records on road accidents with data on social capital at the province level and find a strong negative correlation between social capital and the decision to run away. The analysis is in line with previous studies suggesting that social capital is an important driver of human behaviour even in situations characterized by strict time constraints and dramatic psychological conditions.