Demand Conditions and Worker Safety: Evidence from Price Shocks in Mining

Kerwin Kofi Charles, Matthew S. Johnson, Melvin Stephens and Do Lee

No 26401, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We investigate how demand conditions affect employers' provision of safety - something about which theory is ambivalent. Positive demand shocks relax financial constraints that limit safety investment, but simultaneously raise the opportunity cost of increasing safety rather than production. We study the U.S. metals mining sector, leveraging exogenous demand shocks from short-term variation in global commodity prices. We find that positive price shocks substantially increase workplace injury rates and safety regulation non-compliance. While these results indicate the general dominance of the opportunity cost effect, shocks that only increase mines' cash-flow lower injury rates, illustrating that financial constraints also affect safety.

JEL-codes: J23 J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lma
Note: LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Kerwin Kofi Charles & Matthew S. Johnson & Melvin Stephens & Do Q. Lee, 2022. "Demand Conditions and Worker Safety: Evidence from Price Shocks in Mining," Journal of Labor Economics, vol 40(1), pages 47-94.

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Journal Article: Demand Conditions and Worker Safety: Evidence from Price Shocks in Mining (2022)
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