of the total change in citations occurred due to an increase in the compliance rate; 41 percent was due to a reduction in citations among continuing violators.
NBER Working Paper #3213 December 1989 LONGITUDINAL PATTERNS OF COMPLIANCE WITH OSHA HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR ABSTRACT Ve examine the impact of OSHA enforcement on company compliance with agency regulations in the manufacturing sector, with a unique plant-level dataset of inspection and compliance behavior during 1972-1983, the first twelve years of the agency operation. The analysis suggests that, for an individual inspected plant, the average effect of OSHA inspections during this period was to reduce expected citations by 3.0 or by .36 s.d. The total effect on expected citations of additional inspections can be decomposed into two parts; evaluated at the mean of the sample, 59 percent of the total change in citations occurred due to an increase in the compliance rate; 41 percent was due to a reduction in citations among continuing violators.
Wayne B. Gray Clark University Department of Economics 950 Main Street Worcester, MA 01610
Carol Adaire Jones Quality of the Environment Division Resources for the Future 1616 P Street, NW Washington, DC 20036
