1How Many Traffic Victims Is Reasonable? Reflections on the Swedish Vision Zero in the Light of Economic Theory

The Vision Zero (VZ, Nollvisionen) has been accepted by the Swedish parliament and implies that no people should have to be killed or seriously injured in the Swedish transport sector. From a conventional cost-benefit perspective it is concluded that the VZ will in most cases be incompatible with a cost efficient policy to reduce overall accidents in the Swedish society. Even though we find various reasons why it may be economically optimal to go beyond the basic cost-benefit rule for public investments in safety, or for safety regulations, this conclusion still holds if VZ is interpreted strictly. The possibility that a lower corner solution may be optimal is thus found to be unlikely. Still, it is possible that the productivity of the civil servants who work with safety regulations increases by (some version of) the VZ, or that people´s attitudes and preferences change in a way which is positive for the society as a whole. If so, a non-strict version of the VZ may actually from an economic pont of view be part of an optimal second-best strategy. The purpose of this paper is to discuss from an economic point of view whether the application of the so-called "Vision Zero " (VZ) (Nollvisionen) in the Swedish transpor