Abstract
•The research combines a unique case study regarding women’s intention to drive in Saudi Arabia with a behavioural choice model (ICLV).•Those who are more willing to drive tend to be younger and single women, have studied abroad and are employed. Those who live in provinces that are more affluent and have more economic opportunities.•To effectively encourage more women to drive, a women empowerment campaign could be launched.
Women’s choice to drive is a topic that has not attracted much interest in the academic literature, due to the fact that this is every citizens’ right around the world. Saudi Arabia was the only country left, where women were not allowed to drive. In September 2017, a royal decree was issued, which reinstated the right for women to drive (activated in June 2018). This research aims to identify the key characteristics of women that affect their choice to drive, in order to seek policy inspirations for encouraging more women to drive. To our knowledge, this is the first research, exploring such a sensitive topic. An advanced behavioural econometric model, integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) model, is developed to take into account both directly observable and unobservable characteristics of women to yield broader insights. Specifically, two latent variables, “Current mobility satisfaction” and “Driving importance for women”, are studied, and the policy opportunities attached on them are explored. The data come from the national project SHE Drives KSA, and the sample used for analysis consists of 10,508 women from all over the Kingdom. The model estimation results show that younger and single women, those who have studied abroad and are employed, and those who live in provinces that are more affluent and have more economic opportunities are more willing to drive.