Getting Ready for Europe: An Empirical Assessment for the Introduction of Periodical Technical Inspections of Road Vehicles in Turkey

This paper investigates the effects of Periodical Technical Inspections (PTI) on traffic safety due to the convergence of Turkey to the European Union. Because strict and mandatory PTI were introduced in Turkey only in 2008, the effects of such an introduction can be well-studied. Other countries do not offer this possibility because the introduction dates back a long time and circumstances are not comparable. By using triangulation to understand the effects of such an introduction and exclusively using a unique panel data set, we can find that the introduction of PTI has a measurable effect on traffic safety in the country. Further, the monetary effect for the economy is estimated as well. Thus, this study gives insights and encouragement for other countries to introduce such measures as they can be an important step toward more road safety in countries struggling with high accident rates and high costs for the economy.