The effect of occupational safety legislation in preventing accidents at work: traditional versus advanced manufacturing industries

We analyze the effect of occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation in reducing workplace accidents. It is argued that different impacts should be expected in advanced and traditional manufacturing sectors. We test this hypothesis with data on Spanish manufacturing throughout the period 1988-2004. To that effect, we estimate the relationship between the number of serious injuries and the potential risk factors, by means of diverse specifications of the negative binomial regression model for panel data. Our results indicate that, while the adoption of the new OSH regulation did contribute to the reduction in the number of injuries in advanced manufacturing sectors, the accident rates in traditional manufacturing did not show any statistically significant change following the reform.