Author : John D. Leeth
Publisher : Now Pub
ISBN 13 : 9781601986306
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (863 download)
Book Synopsis OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health by : John D. Leeth
Download or read book OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health written by John D. Leeth and published by Now Pub. This book was released on 2012-12 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: OSHA's Role in Promoting Occupational Safety and Health examines the four pillars of the US safety policy system with a focus on the most recent effort - the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The goal is to determine how OSHA could best use its limited resources to improve worker safety and health in light of incentives already created through the labor market, state workers' compensation insurance programs, and the legal system. After an introduction, the next section develops the general economic model of production and the workplace when there are inevitable risks to safety and health. The third and fourth sections present the institutional details of OSHA and the nature of workplace fatalities and nonfatal injuries in the United States. The survey moves on to examine the evolving enforcement of OSHA regulations over the forty years of its existence and the corresponding empirical estimates of its effectiveness in improving worker safety and health. The next three sections discuss the other three pillars of the US safety policy system, detailing their strengths and weaknesses in generating appropriate safety incentives. The following sections evaluate the likely impact on worker safety of expanding OSHA enforcement power and assess the cost-effectiveness of OSHA in its entirety and some of its regulations individually. The survey concludes with recommendations on how best to improve OSHA's effectiveness in promoting worker safety and health. Finally, the author shows that no evidence exists that by magnifying OSHA's enforcement powers, either by increasing the frequency of inspections or by raising the level of fines for noncompliance, worker safety and health would improve dramatically.