Accidents will happen: (de)regulation of health and safety legislation, workplace accidents and self employment

Brown, Donna and Wadsworth, Jonathan (2022) Accidents will happen: (de)regulation of health and safety legislation, workplace accidents and self employment. CEP Discussion Papers (1855). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

In 2015, the UK government exempted "low-risk" self-employed workers from legislation on workplace safety. This reversed a move two decades earlier that incorporated the self-employed more fully into the same regulatory framework as employees. This paper examines whether workplace accidents among self-employed workers shifted after these two changes to safety regulations. A difference-in-differences estimation framework suggests that the extension of regulation in 1999 had little impact on relative accident rates. In contrast, after 2015, accident rates for high and low risk self-employed converged, driven primarily by a steep fall in accident rates among those still covered by legislation.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion...
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Authors
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory K Law > K Law (General)
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J8 - Labor Standards: National and International > J80 - General J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J28 - Safety; Accidents; Industrial Health; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K32 - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R4 - Transportation Systems > R41 - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2023 14:36
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 23:58
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/117890

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