New Study Shows That Workplace Inspections Save Lives, Don't Destroy Jobs OSHA regulations can be good for workers' health

“Research published today in *Science* sheds light on a hot-button political issue: the role and effectiveness of government regulation. Does it kill jobs or protect the public? The results overturn conventional wisdom: Workplace inspections do reduce on-the-job injuries and their associated costs, and the researchers could not detect any harm to companies' performance or profits.”

Click here for a detailed press release/summary announcing the study

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*http://www.hbs.edu/news/releases/toffelscience051712.html*

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*(the study itself) *

*Randomized Government Safety Inspections Reduce Worker Injuries with No Detectable Job Loss*

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“Controversy surrounds occupational health and safety regulators, with some observers claiming that workplace regulations damage firms’ competitiveness and destroy jobs and others arguing that they make workplaces safer at little cost to employers and employees. We analyzed a natural field experiment to examine how workplace safety inspections affected injury rates and other outcomes. We compared 409 randomly inspected establishments in California with 409 matched-control establishments that were eligible, but not chosen, for inspection. Compared with controls, randomly inspected employers experienced a 9.4% decline in injury rates (95% confidence interval = –0.177 to –0.021) and a 26% reduction in injury cost (95% confidence interval = –0.513 to –0.083). We find no evidence that these improvements came at the expense of employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival.”

Click here for the abstract plus the link to the full text of the study:

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*http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6083/907*