The Influence of the Privatization Process on Accident Rates in the Forestry Sector in Poland

Witold Grzywiński, Joanna Skonieczna, Tomasz Jelonek and Arkadiusz Tomczak
Additional contact information
Witold Grzywiński: Faculty of Forestry, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland
Joanna Skonieczna: Regional Directorate of the State Forests in Poznań, Gajowa 10, 60-959 Poznań, Poland
Tomasz Jelonek: Faculty of Forestry, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland
Arkadiusz Tomczak: Faculty of Forestry, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the changes in accident rates resulting from the privatization of forest operations. Data from the years 1990–2017 were obtained from the Statistical Forestry Yearbooks issued by Statistics Poland, and were analyzed for two periods: the time of intensive privatization (1991–2002) and the post-privatization period (2003–2017). The data from 1990 were treated as a benchmark. There were 14,626 accidents in total, of which 236 (1.61%) were fatal. The non-fatal accident rate in the whole forestry industry showed a decreasing trend in the study period (t = 2.27, p < 0.05). In the case of the fatal accident rate we can observe an upward trend; in the period of intensive privatization the average annual fatality rate was 0.11, and after privatization it was 0.18 (t = −2.68, p < 0.05). In both periods the fatality rate was twice as high in the private forestry sector as in the public sector. The number of working days lost declined in the public sector and increased in the private sector. An accident in the private sector resulted in 20 days’ longer absence than one in the public sector. The study confirms that despite economic transition, accident rates in Polish forestry remain a serious issue. The main problem to be addressed is the increase in the fatal accident rate, especially in the private sector.

Keywords: accident incidence; fatality rate; forestry; public sector; private sector; privatization; Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3055/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3055/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:9:p:3055-:d:351393

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().