This project's objectives are 1) to create a dataset that will provide the richest available source of information about the effects of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections on injuries in manufacturing; and 2) to begin to explore it to produce new insights about the effects of inspections in different settings, the effects of general enforcement strategies, and the effects of new safety standards. We believe that our work will be immediately useful to OSHA officials, will provide a model of how they can explore these data in the future and will provide a resource to injury researchers interested in a broader range of issues. This project will create a new dataset combining inspection data from OSHA's Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) system with injury data on manufacturing plants that have been in the Bureau of Labor Statistics's Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses for at least 3 continuous years between 1992 and 1998. Because there is no common identifier in both sets, this task requires sophisticated matching techniques. Earlier studies did examine a similar dataset which looked at inspections in the 1980s. Our analyses will be more extensive and will make use of two new features: 1) the dataset now contains information on injury and demographic characteristics for cases involving days away from work; and 2) the dataset now includes all states. The dataset will be used for several purposes, including: To replicate earlier studies to see whether their general finding that OSHA inspections with penalties (but not those without penalties) led to injury reductions. To expand those analyses to consider new variables and to examine effects on different subgroups of plants. To examine the effects of citing particular violations on the prevention of particular injuries related to those violations. Tests here will improve our understanding of how OSHA achieves its effects. To examine the role of new safety standards in reducing injuries and the role of inspections in boosting that effect. To examine the effects of different enforcement strategies carried out in different states and regions. To facilitate efforts by researchers to explore some of the reasons for variations in injury rates among plants in the same industry
