IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/indrel/qt1gq7z4j3.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Improving Regulatory Effectiveness through Better Targeting: Evidence from OSHA

Author

Listed:
  • Johnson, Matthew S
  • Levine, David I
  • Toffel, Michael W

Abstract

We study how a regulator can best allocate its limited inspection resources. We direct our analysis to a US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection program that targeted dangerous establishments and allocated some inspections via random assignment. We find that inspections reduced serious injuries by an average of 9% over the following five years. We use new machine learning methods to estimate the effects of counterfactual targeting rules OSHA could have deployed. OSHA could have averted over twice as many injuries if its inspections had targeted the establishments where we predict inspections would avert the most injuries. The agency could have averted nearly as many additional injuries by targeting the establishments predicted to have the most injuries. Both of these targeting regimes would have generated over $1 billion in social value over the decade we examine. Our results demonstrate the promise, and limitations, of using machine learning to improve resource allocation. JEL Classifications: I18; L51; J38; J8

Suggested Citation

  • Johnson, Matthew S & Levine, David I & Toffel, Michael W, 2019. "Improving Regulatory Effectiveness through Better Targeting: Evidence from OSHA," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt1gq7z4j3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt1gq7z4j3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1gq7z4j3.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ling Li & Perry Singleton, 2019. "The Effect of Workplace Inspections on Worker Safety," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 718-748, May.
    2. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2018. "Manipulation testing based on density discontinuity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 18(1), pages 234-261, March.
    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. Christensen, Peter & Francisco, Paul & Myers, Erica & Shao, Hansen & Souza, Mateus, 2024. "Energy efficiency can deliver for climate policy: Evidence from machine learning-based targeting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    2. Andr's Gonz'lez Lira & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, 2018. "Slippery Fish: Enforcing Regulation when Agents Learn and Adapt," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2143R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Mar 2021.
    3. Kirill Ponomarev & Vira Semenova, 2024. "On the Lower Confidence Band for the Optimal Welfare," Papers 2410.07443, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    4. Raghunandan, Aneesh & Ruchti, Thomas, 2024. "The impact of information frictions within regulators: evidence from workplace safety violations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122404, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Augusto Cerqua & Marco Letta & Gabriele Pinto, 2024. "On the (Mis)Use of Machine Learning with Panel Data," Papers 2411.09218, arXiv.org.
    6. Juan Carlos Perdomo, 2023. "The Relative Value of Prediction in Algorithmic Decision Making," Papers 2312.08511, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    7. Anja Bondebjerg & Trine Filges & Jan Hyld Pejtersen & Malene Wallach Kildemoes & Hermann Burr & Peter Hasle & Emile Tompa & Elizabeth Bengtsen, 2023. "Occupational health and safety regulatory interventions to improve the work environment: An evidence and gap map of effectiveness studies," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), December.

    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. Persson, Petra & Qiu, Xinyao & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2021. "Family Spillover Effects of Marginal Diagnoses: The Case of ADHD," IZA Discussion Papers 14020, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Eibich, Peter & Siedler, Thomas, 2020. "Retirement, intergenerational time transfers, and fertility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Luis R. Martinez & Jonas Jessen & Guo Xu, 2023. "A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 68-106, January.
    4. Cantoni, Enrico & Gazzè, Ludovica & Schafer, Jerome, 2021. "Turnout in concurrent elections: Evidence from two quasi-experiments in Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Quinckhardt, Matthias, 2023. "The value of a party: Local politics and the allocation of intergovernmental transfers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. Barbara Broadway & Anna Zhu, 2023. "Spatial heterogeneity in welfare reform success," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2023n13, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    7. Aaron Albert & Nathan Wozny, 2024. "The Impact of Academic Probation: Do Intensive Interventions Help?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(3), pages 852-878.
    8. Giesecke, Matthias & Jäger, Philipp, 2021. "Pension incentives and labor supply: Evidence from the introduction of universal old-age assistance in the UK," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    9. Hızıroğlu Aygün, Aysun & Kırdar, Murat Güray & Koyuncu, Murat & Stoeffler, Quentin, 2024. "Keeping refugee children in school and out of work: Evidence from the world's largest humanitarian cash transfer program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    10. Mellace, Giovanni & Ventura, Marco, 2019. "Intended and unintended effects of public incentives for innovation. Quasi-experimental evidence from Italy," Discussion Papers on Economics 9/2019, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    11. Gaggero, A. & Gil, J. & Jiménez-Rubio, D. & Zucchelli, E., 2021. "Health information and lifestyle behaviours: the impact of a diabetes diagnosis," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/02, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    12. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare, 2020. "Analysis of regression-discontinuity designs with multiple cutoffs or multiple scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(4), pages 866-891, December.
    13. Gorrín, Jesús & Morales-Arilla, José & Ricca, Bernardo, 2023. "Export side effects of wars on organized crime: The case of Mexico," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    14. Mattia Filomena & Matteo Picchio, 2023. "Retirement and health outcomes in a meta‐analytical framework," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1120-1155, September.
    15. Guilherme Amorim & Diogo Britto & Alexandre Fonseca & Breno Sampaio, 2022. "Job Loss, Unemployment Insurance and Health: Evidence from Brazil," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 22192, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    16. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2020. "Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Improve Global Air Quality? New Cross-national Evidence on Its Unintended Consequences," GLO Discussion Paper Series 606, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Adam Altmejd & Andrés Barrios-Fernández & Marin Drlje & Joshua Goodman & Michael Hurwitz & Dejan Kovac & Christine Mulhern & Christopher Neilson & Jonathan Smith, 2021. "O Brother, Where Start Thou? Sibling Spillovers on College and Major Choice in Four Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1831-1886.
    18. Luciana Juvenal & Paulo Santos Monteiro, 2024. "Risky Gravity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 1590-1627.
    19. Christopher Neilson & Adam Altmejd & Andres Barrios-Fernandez & Marin Drlje & Dejan Kovac, 2019. "Siblings' Effects on College and Major Choices: Evidence from Chile, Croatia and Sweden," Working Papers 633, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    20. Fürstenau, Elisabeth & Gohl, Niklas & Haan, Peter & Weinhardt, Felix, 2023. "Working life and human capital investment: Causal evidence from a pension reform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social and Behavioral Sciences; Public Policy;

    JEL classification:

    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cdl:indrel:qt1gq7z4j3. 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: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/irucbus.html .

    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.