Safety and Health at Work

Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (산업안전보건연구원)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Corporate Characteristics and Occupational Injuries by Industry

  • Sunyoung Park (Occupational Safety & Health Policy Research Bureau, Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute) ;
  • Myung-Joong Kim (Occupational Safety & Health Policy Research Bureau, Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute)
  • Received : 2023.04.27
  • Accepted : 2023.08.08
  • Published : 2023.09.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Background: Recent research on occupational injuries in companies has faced difficulties in obtaining representative data, leading to studies relying on surveys or case studies. Moreover, it is difficult to find studies on how a company's industry characteristics affect occupational injuries. This study aims to address these limitations. Methods: We collected 11 years of disclosure data from 1,247 listed companies in the Korean stock market and combined it with their occupational injury histories collected by the Republic of Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA) to build a dataset. We attempted to analyze a linear panel model by dividing the dataset into manufacturing, construction, and other industries. Results: The higher proportion of full-time employees and better job skills correlate with lower occupational injuries in other industries. The wage increase reduces occupational injuries in manufacturing and other industries, but the substitution effect produces the opposite outcome in construction. Also, foreign ownership and credit ratings increase effectively reduce occupational injuries mainly in the manufacturing industry. Conclusion: Our results suggest that in explaining the relationship between corporate characteristics and occupational injuries, it is necessary to consider the nature of the industry more closely, and in particular, employment and labor policies for preventing occupational injuries need to be selectively applied according to industry. In addition, to improve the limitations and increase the usability of the research results, further detailed studies are needed in the future.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute (2022-OSHRI-774) and we would like to thank the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency for providing statistical data.

References

  1. Heinrich HW. Industrial prevention: a safety management approach. New York (US): McGraw-Hill; 1980.
  2. Elsler D, Takala J, Remes J. An international comparison of the cost or work-related accidents and illnesses. Bilbao (Spain): European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. 2017. Available from: https://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/international-comparison-cost-work-related-accidents-andillnesses.
  3. Economic, Social, and Labor Council. Industrial accident prevention benefits both labor and management. Press Release of the Economic. 2022. Social and Labor Council. 22 April 27. Available online: tabCnt=2&stype=&root_yn=Y.
  4. Kossoris MD. Industrial injuries and the business cycle. Monthly Labor Review 1938;46:579.
  5. Fabiano B, Parentini I, Ferraiolo A, Pastorino R. A century of accidents in the Italian industry: relationship with the production cycle. Safety Science 1995;21:65-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/0925-7535(95)00043-7
  6. Fairris D. Institutional change in shopfloor governance and the trajectory of postwar injury rates in U.S. Manufacturing, 1946-1970. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 1998;51:187.
  7. Boone J, van Ours JC. Are recessions good for workplace safety. Journal of Health Economics 2006;25:1069-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2006.03.002
  8. Davies R, Jones P, Nunez I. The impact of the business cycle on occupational injuries in the UK. Social Science & Medicine 2009;69:178-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.04.033
  9. Boone J, van Ours JC, Wuellrich JP, Zweimuller J. Recessions are bad for workplace safety. Journal of Health Economics 2011;30:764-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.05.013
  10. Asfaw A, Pana-Cryan R, Rosa R. The business cycle and the incident of workplace injuries: Evidence from the U.S.A. Journal of Safety Research 2011;42:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2010.10.008
  11. Dong XS, Choi SD, Borchardt JG, Wang X, Largay JA. Fatal falls from roofs among US construction workers. Journal of Safety Research 2013;44:17-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2012.08.024
  12. Chang DS, Tsai YC. Investigating the long-term change of injury pattern on severity, accident types and sources of injury in Taiwan's manufacturing sector between 1996 and 2012. Safety Science 2014;68:231-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.04.005
  13. De la Fuente VS, Lopez MAC, Gonzalez IF, Gonzalez Alcantara OJ, Ritzel DO. The impact of the economic crisis on occupational injuries. Journal of Safety Research 2014;48:77-85.
  14. Farina E, Giraudo M, Costa G, Bena A. Injury rates and economic cycles in the Italian manufacturing sector. Occupational Medicine 2018;64:459-63. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqy102
  15. Fernandez-Muniz B, Montes-Peon JM, Vazquez-Ordas CJ. Occupational accidents and the economic cycle in Spain 1994e2014. Safety Science 2018;106:273-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2016.02.029
  16. Kim MJ, Park SY. The Ripple Effect of Economic Fluctuations on Occupational Accidents by Industry. Journal of Industrial Studies 2022a;46:59-91. https://doi.org/10.22915/RIFI.2022.46.2.003
  17. Kim MJ, Park SY. Analysis of Business Cycle Factors and Occupational Accidents in Construction Industry. Journal of the Korean Society of Safety 2022b;37:32-9.
  18. Kim DK, Park SY. Business Cycle and Occupational Accidents in Korea. Safety and Health at Work 2020;11:314-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2020.05.002
  19. Kim DK, Park SY. Analysis of Business Cycle Influencing the Quarterly Occupational Accidents in Korea. Journal of CEO and Managttement Studies 2021;24:269-87. https://doi.org/10.37674/CEOMS.24.1.14
  20. Underhill E, Quinlan M. How precarious employment affects health and safety at work: the case of temporary agency workers. Relations Industrielles 2011;66:397e421.
  21. Kwon SS. The Relation between Contingent Employment and Industrial Accident : The Analysis of Workplace Panel Data. Journal of Industrial Economics and Business 2016;29:169-94.
  22. Choi W-I, Kim S-H. The Correlation between Work Ability Index and Workplace Injuries of Semi-Industrial Classification around North GyeongBuk Area. Journal of Korea Safety Management Science 2014;16:129-38. https://doi.org/10.12812/ksms.2014.16.1.129
  23. Mohamed S. Safety climate in construction site environments. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 2002;128:375-84. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2002)128:5(375)
  24. Filer RK, Golbe DL. Debt, operating margin, and investment in workplace safety. The Journal of Industrial Economics 2003;51:359-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6451.00205
  25. Nie H, Zhao H. Financial leverage and employee death: evidence from China's coalmining industry; 2017. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2369185. SSRN Working Paper ; Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2369185.
  26. Park SY. An Analysis of corporate expenditure on safe and health. Ulsan (Republic of Korea): Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute; 2017. Report No.: 2017-OSHRI-1033.
  27. Granger CW, Newbold P. Spurious regressions in econometrics. Journal of Econometrics 1974;2:111e20.
  28. Levin A, Lin CF, Chu CSJ. Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties. Journal of Econometrics 2002;108:1-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(01)00098-7
  29. Im KS, Pesaran MH, Shin Y. Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. Journal of Econometrics 2003;115:53-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(03)00092-7
  30. Choi I. Unit root tests for panel data. Journal of International Money and Finance 2001;20:249-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5606(00)00048-6
  31. Kao C. Spurious regression and residual-based tests for cointegration in panel data. Journal of Econometrics 1999;90:1-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4076(98)00023-2
  32. Hausman JA. Specification tests in econometrics. Econometrica 1978;46:1251-71. https://doi.org/10.2307/1913827
  33. Koo J, Kim H-M, Park SY. A Study on the Determinants of Injury Rate Using Financial Data. Journal of CEO and Management Studies 2019;22:307-34.
  34. Kim H-J. Can Robots Save Workers? The Effects of Robots on Workplace Injuries and Workers' Health in Korea. BOK Working Paper 2023;2023-11:1-19.
  35. Ministry of Employment and Labor. Be careful of large-scale construction site machinery and equipment deaths. Press Release. 2022. 22 July 28. Available online: www.moel.go.kr/news/enews/report/enewsView.do?news_seq=13791.