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  • September 2014
  • Article
  • The Compass (Newsletter of the American Society of Safety Engineers)

OSHA Inspections Should Be Welcome: Results from a Natural Field Experiment in California

By: David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
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Abstract

For companies with strong internal occupational safety and health auditing programs, OSHA inspections might seem a formality that risk uncovering, at most, nitpicky deviations from the thousands of pages of safety regulations. For those with poor safety practices, OSHA inspections can result in penalties and bad press that risk impugning the company's reputation. Both of these accounts suggest that for managers, the fewer OSHA inspections the better. The results of our research call for a much more welcoming attitude, given we found that inspections by Cal/OSHA, California's health and safety regulator, led to substantial reductions in injuries and workers' compensation costs.

Keywords

Business and Government Relations; Operations; Safety; Governance Compliance; United States; California

Citation

Levine, David I., and Michael W. Toffel. "OSHA Inspections Should Be Welcome: Results from a Natural Field Experiment in California." The Compass (Newsletter of the American Society of Safety Engineers) 14, no. 1 (September 2014): 4.
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About The Author

Michael W. Toffel

Technology and Operations Management
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