Occupational safety regulation and economic efficiency: the railroad industry

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6367740

French, M T

This thesis develops a cost-benefit model for the railroad industry to estimate the efficient level of disabling injuries across class 1 carriers. The neoclassical cost function and the hedonic wage function serve as the estimating equations for the cost and benefit estimation, respectively. The cost function is fitted to a sample of thirty-five class 1 railroads in 1980. The hedonic wage function is fitted to a sample of 481 railroad industry employees for the same year. The efficient level of 1980 disabling injuries for each railroad is determined by setting the marginal cost (MC) of injury reduction equal to its marginal benefit (MB). In addition, the cost savings accruing to efficient regulatory reform are calculated for each firm as well as the entire industry. A second-best cost-minimizing regulatory policy is also introduced. The cost-minimizing level of injuries and resulting cost savings for individual firms and the total industry are estimated. The results support the prior hypothesis that MC exceeds MB for the vast majority of firms. Substantial cost savings are possible under reformed regulatory policy.

• Research Organization: Boston Coll., Chestnut Hill, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6367740
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
INJURIES
ECONOMIC IMPACT
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
REGULATIONS
RAILWAYS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SAFETY
290300* - Energy Planning & Policy- Environment
Health
& Safety
290200 - Energy Planning & Policy- Economics & Sociology
320202 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Transportation- Railway