On-the-Job Injury: Employment History and Hidden Losses.

摘要

Issues Addressed and Importance of the Problem: While official US statistics show that occupational injury rates have continuously declined since the early 1990s. The costs of such injuries have remained high with spending breaking $142 billion dollars in 2004. The calculations of these costs are usually based on estimates of earnings losses experienced by injured workers or on the amount of workers' compensation (WC) benefits that are being paid. This research has aimed to increase our knowledge about some additional hidden social and economic outcomes of workplace injuries. Approach: The main hypothesis of the study was that injuries cannot be studied as isolated events in workers' lives. Their consequences will largely depend on the individual's personal characteristics and pre-injury labor market experience. These factors, together with employers' characteristics, behaviors and working conditions, will then determine the potential long-lasting economic effects of the injury. Given its aims, the research proposal has used data that permit examination of workers' lives over a long period of time, both before and after the injury: the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort is a nationally representative panel survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. These data were analyzed both through descriptive statistics and with cross-sectional and longitudinal econometric techniques.