Valuing the economic consequences of work injury and illness: a comparison of methods and findings

Details

• Personal Author:
  Weil D
• Description:
  Background: Workplace injuries and fatalities in the US create significant economic costs to society. Although economic costs should measure the opportunity cost to society arising from injuries and fatalities, estimating them often proves difficult as a practical matter. This leads to a range of estimates for valuing these costs. Methods: This paper compares methods of economic valuation, focusing in particular on how different methods diverge to varying degrees from measuring the "true'' economic costs of injuries and illnesses. In so doing, it surveys the literature that has arisen in the past 25 years to measure different aspects of economic consequences. Results: Estimates of the costs of injuries and fatalities tend to understate the true economic costs from a social welfare perspective, particularly in how they account for occupational fatalities and losses arising from work disabilities. Conclusions: Although data availability often makes estimation of social welfare costs difficult, researchers should attempt to more fully integrate such approaches into estimation procedures and interpretation of their results. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Longevity Mortality Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Occupational Injury And Illness Benefit/Cost Analysis Disabled-workers Diseases Economic Valuation Employee-health Injuries Lifespan Lost-work-days Mortality-data Social Welfare Costs Sociological-factors Value Of Human Life

  More +
• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  418-437
• Volume:
  40
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041084
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2001 Oct; 40(4):418-437
• Contact Point Address:
  David Weil, Visiting Fellow, Taubman Center, T-310, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
• Email:
  David_Weil@ksg.harvard.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dca154726a8dca29abec19fadd3832a817a84bac8ce7190cbf5fbe686d4d149491643118322942c93f9b3da1c8c755f3694367c8a57a256f53f4cbaa38005a14
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193737/cdc_193737_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 232.71 KB ]