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Endogenous safety processes: A model of regulation and safety in industrial firms
Author(s) -
Crawford Catherine M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
system dynamics review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.491
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1099-1727
pISSN - 0883-7066
DOI - 10.1002/sdr.4260070103
Subject(s) - occupational safety and health , business , workplace safety , intervention (counseling) , industrial organization , risk analysis (engineering) , medicine , pathology , psychiatry
A model of safety and of the impact of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on safety in industrial firms is described in this article. The model incorporates safety feedback processes in U.S. manufacturing firms, including the relations between safety programs, safety equipment, and accidents. Monte Carlo‐like simulations were produced, with 1,000 firms simulated sequentially. The firms were distributed among the 20 standard industrial sectors and the five size categories that comprise the manufacturing industry. Each firm's safety behavior was simulated for a four‐year period, and each firm was inspected once by OSHA. Injury rates across all firms were measured to determine if OSHA's actions had a measurable effect upon safety in firms. The model captures important underlying assumptions regarding safety regulation that have typically been excluded from evaluations of the impact of safety regulation in the United States. These assumptions may in fact be central to understanding the relations between intervention.