Debt, Operating Margin, and Investment In Workplace Safety

Randall Filer and Devra Golbe ()

Journal of Industrial Economics, 2003, vol. 51, issue 3, 359-381

Abstract: We investigate how a firm's financial performance affects workplace safety. We provide empirical estimates of the relationship between a firm's financial condition and its investment in workplace safety using plant‐level proxies for safety performance from OSHA records for thirteen large U.S. industries for the period 1972‐87. Our results suggest that, at the lowest levels of operating margins, firms with higher operating margins have safer workplaces. Firms with more debt also have safer workplaces, but only when operating margins are relatively low. These results are consistent with a number of theoretical models in which financial factors influence operating decisions.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6451.00205

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jindec:v:51:y:2003:i:3:p:359-381

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0022-1821

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Economics is currently edited by Pierre Regibeau, Yeon-Koo Che, Kenneth Corts, Thomas Hubbard, Patrick Legros and Frank Verboven

More articles in Journal of Industrial Economics from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().