IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v20y2001i4p651-674.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing OSHA Performance: New Evidence from the Construction Industry

Author

Listed:
  • David Weil

    (School of Management, Boston University)

Abstract

The determinants of OSHA performance can be examined by breaking the regulatory process into three elements relating to enforcement, compliance behavior, and the adequacy of standards in addressing safety outcomes. This paper develops and applies this framework to the U.S. construction industry during the period 1987 to 1993. Enforcement activity among the firms in the sample was substantial, with firms facing a high probability of annual inspection. But, despite this significant enforcement effort, inspections have a modest effect on firm compliance with OSHA standards. Finally, the health and safety standards cited most frequently diverge from the major sources of fatalities and injuries on construction projects. These results suggest that historic enforcement policies toward construction make less sense as OSHA moves into its fourth decade of operation. More generally, the paper illustrates the problem of focusing enforcement resources on large, high‐profile companies even though they often are not the major source of regulatory problems in an established area of public policy intervention. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Suggested Citation

  • David Weil, 2001. "Assessing OSHA Performance: New Evidence from the Construction Industry," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 651-674.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:20:y:2001:i:4:p:651-674
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.1022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.1022
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.1022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bartel, Ann P & Thomas, Lacy Glenn, 1985. "Direct and Indirect Effects of Regulation: A New Look at OSHA's Impact," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-25, April.
    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. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Kilkon Ko & John Mendeloff & Wayne Gray, 2010. "The role of inspection sequence in compliance with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) standards: Interpretations and implications," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 48-70, March.
    3. David WEIL, 2008. "A strategic approach to labour inspection," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 147(4), pages 349-375, December.
    4. John Mendeloff & Wayne B. Gray & Philip Armour & Frank Neuhauser, 2021. "The re‐occurrence of violations in occupational safety and health administration inspections," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1454-1479, October.
    5. Wayne B. Gray & John Mendeloff, 2002. "The Declining Effects of OSHA Inspections on Manufacturing Injuries: 1979 to 1998," NBER Working Papers 9119, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Chikako Oka, 2010. "Accounting for the Gaps in Labour Standard Compliance: The Role of Reputation-Conscious Buyers in the Cambodian Garment Industry," Post-Print hal-02952241, HAL.

    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. Roland Vaubel, 2008. "The political economy of labor market regulation by the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 435-465, December.
    2. Gray, Wayne B & Jones, Carol Adaire, 1991. "Are OSHA Health Inspections Effective? A Longitudinal Study in the Manufacturing Sector," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 504-508, August.
    3. Delgado-Cubillo, Pablo & Martín-Román, Ángel L., 2023. "Workers’ behavior after safety regulations: Impact evaluation of the Spanish Occupational Safety and Health Act," MPRA Paper 117284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Vaubel, Roland, 2003. "Principal-Agent-Probleme in internationalen Organisationen," HWWA Discussion Papers 219, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    6. Fortin, B. & Lanoie, P., 1998. "Effects of Workers' Compensation : A Survey," Papers 9816, Laval - Recherche en Politique Economique.
    7. Michael Gmeiner & Robert Gmeiner, 2022. "Regulation Enforcement," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 163-202, June.
    8. Nadeau, Louis W., 1997. "EPA Effectiveness at Reducing the Duration of Plant-Level Noncompliance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 54-78, September.
    9. Sonny S. Ariss, 2003. "Employee Involvement to Improve Safety in the Workplace: An Ethical Imperative," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 18(2), pages 9-16.
    10. Masaru Sasaki, 2010. "Unemployment and Workplace Safety in a Search and Matching Model," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 10-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    11. Bronchetti, Erin Todd, 2012. "Workers' compensation and consumption smoothing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(5), pages 495-508.
    12. Earnhart, Dietrich & Segerson, Kathleen, 2012. "The influence of financial status on the effectiveness of environmental enforcement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 670-684.
    13. Nicole Darnall & Irene Henriques & Perry Sadorsky, 2010. "Adopting Proactive Environmental Strategy: The Influence of Stakeholders and Firm Size," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1072-1094, September.
    14. Bilgrami, A. & Cutler, H. & Sinha, K., 2021. "Do standardised workplace health and safety laws and increased enforcement activities reduce the probability of receiving workers' compensation?," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/08, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    15. Roland Vaubel, 2004. "Federation With Majority Decisions: Economic Lessons From The History Of The Unite D States, Germany And The European Union," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 53-59, December.
    16. Kilkon Ko & John Mendeloff & Wayne Gray, 2010. "The role of inspection sequence in compliance with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) standards: Interpretations and implications," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 48-70, March.
    17. W. Kip Viscusi & Robert J. Cramer, 2023. "How regulations undervalue occupational fatalities," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 250-271, January.
    18. Dolar, Burak & Shughart II, William F., 2011. "Enforcement of the USA Patriot Act's anti-money laundering provisions: Have regulators followed a risk-based approach?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 19-31.
    19. Amihai Glazer & Kai A. Konrad, 1995. "Strategic Lobbying By Potential Industry Entrants," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 167-179, July.
    20. Dean, Thomas J. & Brown, Robert L. & Stango, Victor, 2000. "Environmental Regulation as a Barrier to the Formation of Small Manufacturing Establishments: A Longitudinal Examination," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 56-75, July.

    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:wly:jpamgt:v:20:y:2001:i:4:p:651-674. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    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.