IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/upj/weupjo/03-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Productivity Consequences of Two Ergonomic Interventions

Author

Listed:
  • Kelly DeRango

    (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)

  • Ben Amick, III

    (The University of Texas Health Sciences Center)

  • Michelle Robertson

    (Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety)

  • Ted Rooney

    (Health and Work Outcomes)

  • Anne Moore

    (School of Kinesiology and Health Science)

  • Lianna Bazzani

    (Health and Work Outcomes)

Abstract

Pre- and post-intervention data on health outcomes, absenteeism, and productivity from a longitudinal, quasi-experimental design field study of office workers was used to evaluate the economic consequences of two ergonomic interventions. Researchers assigned individuals in the study to three groups: a group that received an ergonomically designed chair and office ergonomics training; a group that received office ergonomics training only; and a control group. The results show that while training alone has neither a statistically significant effect on health nor productivity, the chair-with-training intervention substantially reduced pain and improved productivity. Neither intervention affected sick leave hours.

Suggested Citation

  • Kelly DeRango & Ben Amick, III & Michelle Robertson & Ted Rooney & Anne Moore & Lianna Bazzani, 2003. "The Productivity Consequences of Two Ergonomic Interventions," Upjohn Working Papers 03-95, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:03-95
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1112&context=up_workingpapers
    Download Restriction: This material is copyrighted. Permission is required to reproduce any or all parts.
    ---><---

    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. Currie, Janet & Madrian, Brigitte C., 1999. "Health, health insurance and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 50, pages 3309-3416, Elsevier.
    2. Emile Tompa, 2002. "The Impact of Health on Productivity: Macro and Microeconomic Evidence and Policy Implications," The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, in: Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director & France St-Hilaire, Vice-President , Research & Keith Banting, Di (ed.), The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity, volume 2, Centre for the Study of Living Standards;The Institutute for Research on Public Policy.
    3. Ernst R.Berndt, 2000. "On the economic impacts of medical treatments: work productivity and functioning," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 27(2 Year 20), pages 181-198, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Samar Khairy Ghanem, 2018. "The relationship between population and the environment and its impact on sustainable development in Egypt using a multi-equation model," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 305-342, February.
    2. Naoki Aizawa & Hanming Fang, 2020. "Equilibrium Labor Market Search and Health Insurance Reform," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(11), pages 4258-4336.
    3. Naoki Aizawa & Hanming Fang, 2015. "Equilibrium Labor Market Search and Health Insurance Reform, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 15-024, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 28 Jun 2015.
    4. Andrew Sharpe & Alexander Murray, 2011. "State of the Evidence on Health as a Determinant of Productivity," CSLS Research Reports 2011-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    5. Craig Garthwaite & Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2014. "Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 653-696.
    6. Arie Kapteyn & James P. Smith & Arthur VanSoest, 2005. "Vignettes and Self Reported Work Disability," Labor and Demography 0511005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Fabian Duarte & Srikanth Kadiyala & Samuel H. Masters & David Powell, 2017. "The Effect of the 2009 Influenza Pandemic on Absence from Work," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1682-1695, December.
    8. Leone Leonida & Marianna Marra & Sergio Scicchitano & Antonio Giangreco & Marco Biagetti, 2020. "Estimating the Wage Premium to Supervision for Middle Managers in Different Contexts: Evidence from Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1004-1026, December.
    9. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Taylor Wright, 2020. "COVID-19, Stay-at-Home Orders and Employment: Evidence from CPS Data," Carleton Economic Papers 20-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 19 May 2020.
    10. Alicia H. Munnell & Steven A. Sass, 2007. "The Labor Supply of Older Americans," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2007-12, Center for Retirement Research, revised Jun 2007.
    11. Rita K. Almeida & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "Women in paid employment: a role for public policies and social norms in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 252-279, July.
    12. Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2017. "Health, Health Insurance, and Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 383-409, September.
    13. Thomas Barnay, 2016. "Health, work and working conditions: a review of the European economic literature," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(6), pages 693-709, July.
    14. Marianne P. Bitler & Madeline Zavodny, 2014. "Medicaid: A Review of the Literature," NBER Working Papers 20169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Arie Kapteyn & James P. Smith & Arthur Van Soest, 2004. "Self-reported Work Disability in the US and The Netherlands," Working Papers WR-206, RAND Corporation.
    16. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Richard Blundell & Jack Britton & Monica Costa Dias & Eric French, 2023. "The Impact of Health on Labor Supply near Retirement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(1), pages 282-334.
    18. Hugo Benitez-Silva & Moshe Buchinsky & John Rust & Emine Boz & Joseph B. Nichols & Sharbani Roy & Ignez Tristao, 2005. "Health Status, Insurance, and Expenditures in the Transition from Work to Retirement," Department of Economics Working Papers 05-11, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    19. Meltem Daysal, N. & Orsini, C., 2012. "The Miracle Drug : Hormone Replacement Therapy and Labor Market Behavior of Middle-Aged Women," Discussion Paper 2012-026, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    20. Jennifer Feenstra Schultz & David Doorn, 2009. "Employer Health Benefit Costs and Demand for Part-Time Labor," Working Papers 09-08, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ergonomics; chair; pain; DeRango; Upjohn;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
    • J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

    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:upj:weupjo:03-95. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/upjohus.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.