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

Author

Listed:
  • Kerwin Kofi Charles
  • Matthew S. Johnson
  • Melvin Stephens
  • Do Q. Lee
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 US 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 noncompliance. 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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(1), pages 47-94.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/713887
    DOI: 10.1086/713887
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    1. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W Imbens & Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 1-35.
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    9. Caskey, Judson & Ozel, N. Bugra, 2017. "Earnings expectations and employee safety," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 121-141.
    10. Andrew Garin & Filipe Silverio, 2017. "How Does Firm Performance Affect Wages? Evidence from Idiosyncratic Export Shocks," 2017 Papers pga940, Job Market Papers.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ioana Marinescu & Yue Qiu & Aaron Sojourner, 2021. "Wage Inequality and Labor Rights Violations," NBER Working Papers 28475, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Dalmazzo, Alberto & Leombruni, Roberto & Razzolini, Tiziano, 2023. "Anticipation Effects of EU Accession on Immigrants' Labour Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 16614, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Park, R. Jisung & Pankratz, Nora & Behrer, A. Patrick, 2021. "Temperature, Workplace Safety, and Labor Market Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 14560, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Amanda M. Grittner & Matthew S. Johnson, 2021. "When Labor Enforcement and Immigration Enforcement Collide: Deterring Worker Complaints Worsens Workplace Safety," Upjohn Working Papers 21-353, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    5. Katharina Drescher & Benedikt Janzen, 2023. "When Weather Wounds Workers: The Impact of Temperature on Workplace Accidents," Working Papers 226, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy

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