IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v16y2009i1p26-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do on-the-job injuries and illnesses impact wealth?

Author

Listed:
  • Galizzi, Monica
  • Zagorsky, Jay L.

Abstract

This research focuses on one neglected area of workers' compensation research, the effect of injury and illness on net worth. We track participants in the NLSY79: one-third of these baby boomers were hurt at work, but 38% of them did not file for workers' compensation. We find that the typical young baby boomer who is never injured has both much higher absolute wealth and wealth growth rates than boomers who are ever injured. Regression results that control for unobserved heterogeneity suggest, however, that the injury does not predict lower wealth unless workers have reported wage losses or spells off work because of their accidents. For these employees wealth is dramatically reduced, regardless of their participation in the workers' compensation system. We also find that injured workers significantly reduce their consumption over time. These results raise new questions about the adequacy of workers' compensation benefits and the quality of jobs injured workers are able to return to. They suggest that sudden health problems caused by occupational injuries may affect more than employers' costs and individuals' incomes; they may have also wider and longer lasting consequences in term of families' wealth and well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Galizzi, Monica & Zagorsky, Jay L., 2009. "How do on-the-job injuries and illnesses impact wealth?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 26-36, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:16:y:2009:i:1:p:26-36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927-5371(08)00017-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Browning & M. Dolores Collado, 2001. "The Response of Expenditures to Anticipated Income Changes: Panel Data Estimates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 681-692, June.
    2. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1999. "Changing Inequality in Markets for Workplace Amenities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1085-1123.
    3. Arthur B. Kennickell & R. Louise Woodburn, 1999. "CONSISTENT WEIGHT DESIGN FOR THE 1989, 1992 AND 1995 SCFs, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(2), pages 193-215, June.
    4. Leslie I. Boden & Monica Galizzi, 2003. "Income Losses of Women and Men Injured at Work," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(3).
    5. Jay L. Zagorsky, 1999. "Young Baby Boomers' Wealth," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(2), pages 135-156, June.
    6. repec:bla:revinw:v:45:y:1999:i:2:p:135-56 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Robert B. Barsky & F. Thomas Juster & Miles S. Kimball & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 537-579.
    8. Galizzi, Monica & Boden, Leslie I., 2003. "The return to work of injured workers: evidence from matched unemployment insurance and workers' compensation data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 311-337, June.
    9. Kenneth J. Arrow & Robert C. Lind, 1974. "Uncertainty and the Evaluation of Public Investment Decisions," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 3, pages 54-75, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Campolieti, Michele, 2001. "Recurrence in Workers' Compensation Claims: Estimates from a Multiple Spell Hazard Model," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 75-94, July.
    11. William N. Evans & W. Kip Viscusi, 1993. "Income Effects and the Value of Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(3), pages 497-518.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monica Galizzi & Tommaso Tempesti, 2015. "Workers’ Risk Tolerance and Occupational Injuries," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(10), pages 1858-1875, October.
    2. Xuan Wu & Yueting Li & Yangxin Yu, 2023. "CEO Inside Debt and Employee Workplace Safety," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 159-175, January.
    3. Gabriele Mazzolini, 2014. "The economic consequences of accidents at work," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    4. Caskey, Judson & Ozel, N. Bugra, 2017. "Earnings expectations and employee safety," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 121-141.
    5. repec:ctc:serie1:def15 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Dai, Yunhao & Tong, Xinchu & Wang, Li, 2022. "Workplace safety accident, employee treatment, and firm value: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Jesper Haga & Fredrik Huhtamäki & Dennis Sundvik, 2022. "Ruthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians of the Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 641-663, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Monica Galizzi & Tommaso Tempesti, 2015. "Workers’ Risk Tolerance and Occupational Injuries," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(10), pages 1858-1875, October.
    2. Christian Gollier, 2002. "Quel taux d’actualisation pour le long terme ?," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 66(2), pages 253-267.
    3. Monica Galizzi & Roberto Leombruni & Lia Pacelli & Antonella Bena, 2014. "Wages and return to work of injured workers," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 139, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    4. Andersen, Signe Hald, 2010. "The cost of sickness: On the effect of the duration of sick leave on post-sick leave earnings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1581-1589, May.
    5. Swarn Chatterjee, 2009. "Immigrants Have Lower Participation Rates In U.S. Financial Markets?," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 3(2), pages 1-13.
    6. Gabriele Mazzolini, 2020. "The Economic Consequences of Accidents at Work," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 1068-1093, October.
    7. Tor Eriksson & Nicolai Kristensen, 2014. "Wages or Fringes? Some Evidence on Trade-Offs and Sorting," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(4), pages 899-928.
    8. Eric Park & Rui Yao, 2016. "Financial Risk Attitude and Behavior: Do Planners Help Increase Consistency?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 624-638, December.
    9. Pedersen, Morten Saaby & Arendt, Jacob Nielsen, 2014. "Bargaining for health: A case study of a collective agreement-based health program for manual workers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 123-136.
    10. Insoo Cho & Peter F. Orazem, 2021. "How endogenous risk preferences and sample selection affect analysis of firm survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1309-1332, April.
    11. Sergio Sousa, 2010. "Small-scale changes in wealth and attitudes toward risk," Discussion Papers 2010-11, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    12. Cardak, Buly A. & Martin, Vance L., 2023. "Household willingness to take financial risk: Stockmarket movements and life‐cycle effects," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    13. Chen, An & Hieber, Peter & Sureth, Caren, 2022. "Pay for tax certainty? Advance tax rulings for risky investment under multi-dimensional tax uncertainty," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 273, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    14. Christopher Erceg & Christopher Gust & David López-Salido, 2007. "The Transmission of Domestic Shocks in Open Economies," NBER Chapters, in: International Dimensions of Monetary Policy, pages 89-148, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Goytom Abraha Kahsay & Daniel Osberghaus, 2018. "Storm Damage and Risk Preferences: Panel Evidence from Germany," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(1), pages 301-318, September.
    16. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd R. Stinebrickner, 2014. "A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(1), pages 426-472.
    17. Luc Arrondel & André Masson, 2013. "Measuring savers' preferences how and why?," PSE Working Papers halshs-00834203, HAL.
    18. Matteo G. Richiardi & Luis Valenzuela, 2024. "Firm heterogeneity and the aggregate labour share," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(1), pages 66-101, March.
    19. Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Inequality, Too Much of a Good Thing," Working Papers 845, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    20. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii, 2000. "Occupational Mobility and Wage Inequality, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 04-026, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 15 Jun 2004.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:16:y:2009:i:1:p:26-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.