IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v36y1983i4p642-654.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Workers' Compensation, Job Hazards, and Wages

Author

Listed:
  • Stuart Dorsey
  • Norman Walzer

Abstract

Competitive theory implies that compensating wage differentials will be paid to workers in hazardous employment, but only to the extent that employees are liable for risk. This prediction suggests that previous estimates of wage-risk premiums may be biased as a result of the failure to control for variations in workers' compensation benefits across states. The authors of this paper test an empirical model of compensating wage differentials that includes a measure of employer liability. For nonunion workers, they find that significant wage premiums are paid for an increased probability or severity of nonfatal injury; a slight downward bias in these estimates results from omitting the liability variable; and increases in employers' costs of workers' compensation are offset dollar-for-dollar by reduced wages. For union workers, however, the evidence on compensating differentials is mixed, and there is no suggestion of a trade-off between wages and the costs of workers' compensation.

Suggested Citation

  • Stuart Dorsey & Norman Walzer, 1983. "Workers' Compensation, Job Hazards, and Wages," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 36(4), pages 642-654, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:36:y:1983:i:4:p:642-654
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ilr.sagepub.com/content/36/4/642.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Dickie, Mark & Messman, Victoria L., 2004. "Parental altruism and the value of avoiding acute illness: are kids worth more than parents?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1146-1174, November.
    2. Viscusi, W Kip, 1993. "The Value of Risks to Life and Health," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1912-1946, December.
    3. Danielle Lamb & Rafael Gomez & Milad Moghaddas, 2022. "Unions and hazard pay for COVID‐19: Evidence from the Canadian Labour Force Survey," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 606-634, September.
    4. Jonathan Gruber & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "The Incidence of Mandated Employer-Provided Insurance: Lessons from Workers' Compensation Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 111-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. repec:zbw:rwirep:0047 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. John P. Haisken-DeNew & Matthias Vorell, 2008. "Blood Money: Incentives for Violence in NHL Hockey," Ruhr Economic Papers 0047, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Dionne, Georges & Lebeau, Martin, 2010. "Le calcul de la valeur statistique d’une vie humaine," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 86(4), pages 487-530, décembre.
    8. Rafael Muñoz de Bustillo & Enrique Fernández-Macías & José-Ignacio Antón & Fernando Esteve, 2011. "Measuring More than Money," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14072.
    9. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1985. "Workers' Compensation, Wages, and the Risk of Injury," NBER Working Papers 1538, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. W. Kip Viscusi, 2015. "The heterogeneity of the value of statistical life: evidence and policy implications," Chapters, in: Carol Mansfield & V. K. Smith (ed.), Benefit–Cost Analyses for Security Policies, chapter 4, pages 78-116, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Marios Michaelides, 2010. "A New Test of Compensating Differences: Evidence on the Importance of Unobserved Heterogeneity," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(5), pages 475-495, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:ilrrev:v:36:y:1983:i:4:p:642-654. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    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.