Volume 20, Number 1 (Winter) 1985
Sider, Hal. 1985. "Work-Related Accidents and the Production Process." Journal of Human Resources 20(1):47-63.
The extent to which the incidence of work-related accidents can be considered a phenomenon responsive to economic incentives is examined in this paper. A joint output, multi-input translog production model is developed in which the relationship between wage costs and risk is estimated along with the technological parameters of the production process. Estimates for six manufacturing industries show a statistically significant opportunity cost of reductions in injuries and a statistically significant relationship between wage costs and injury risk. The results also provide some evidence that labor markets sort the most risk-averse workers to the safer industries. Simulations based on production technology indicate that relatively large taxes are needed to induce reductions in the incidence of injuries.
The author is an economist in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the position or policies of the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights. I wish to thank Frank Gollop, Mark
Roberts, David Graham, Leonard Weiss, Stephen Woodbury, and the referees for
helpful comments. Remaining errors are my own. This paper is taken from the
author's Ph.D. dissertation. Portions of this paper were presented at the
American Economic Association meetings in December 1982.
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