Suchergebnisse

This study examines income inequality across races in the United States between 2000 and 2019. It empirically investigates the relationship between income and race controlling for variables such as age, education, gender, marital, and citizenship status. The analysis begins with multiple regression models that identify the importance of different factors in determining income. A Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition reveals which factors contribute to the racial gaps in income and how these components vary in importance when comparing other races to Whites. Multiple regression results identify a statistically significant gap in income between Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians relative to Whites. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition results reveal the greatest contributor to the income gap for Blacks is the coefficient effect (a pure group effect). For Hispanics and Asians, a greater contributor is the endowment effect, based on characteristics such as education and immigration. Unlike other groups, the overall contribution of endowments to White-Asian income disparity is in favor of Asians. There is a need to adopt multifaceted policies that target those differences across racial groups: reducing systemic discrimination for Blacks, providing market valued skills and better education opportunities for Hispanics and advancing immigration reforms for Asians.

AbstractAre stronger direct financial incentives or regulatory enforcement effective in reducing fatalities in the construction industry? We examine two important policies—state workers' compensation (WC) programs and federal and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) activities—which embody those strategies. We examine their impact by looking at state‐level fatality rates in the construction industry from 1992 to 2016. Setting aside highway crashes and violence, the majority of employee deaths occur in construction. We find that states which exempt small firms from the requirement to buy WC insurance have higher fatality rates. When eligibility for compensation is restricted by longer waiting periods, fatality rates are substantially higher. More frequent federal or state OSHA inspections and, especially, consultation visits are associated with lower fatality rates, but higher average penalties are not. Limited variation in these policies over our sample period, especially for WC, makes these results suggestive rather than definitively causal.

We examine different models of employers' responses to OSHA inspections. The "detection/correction" model assumes that responses are limited to correcting the violations that inspectors cite. The "behavioral shock" model assumes that firms respond by paying more attention to safety issues, even those unrelated to OSHA standards. We test whether some injury types are more affected by inspections than others, or by citations of particular OSHA standards. We conclude that, although citing particular standards can reduce injury types specifically related to those hazards, inspections also affect a wider range of injuries, suggesting a broader impact on managerial attention to safety.

This paper uses census data for 116 pulp and paper mills over the period 1979–1990 to examine the determinants of compliance with air pollution regulations. Several plant characteristics are significant: large plants, old plants, and pulp mills comply less frequently, as do plants with water pollution or OSHA violations, but firm characteristics generally are not significant. Enforcement activity increases compliance, but in a heterogeneous way: pulp mills are less sensitive to inspections, while plants owned by larger firms are less sensitive to inspections and more sensitive to "other" enforcement actions, consistent with the authors' expectations and prior research results.

Abstract
This paper examines the determinants of environmental performance at paper mills, measured by air pollution emissions per unit of output. We consider differences across plants in air pollution abatement expenditures, local regulatory stringency, and productive efficiency. Emissions are significantly lower in plants with a larger air pollution abatement capital stock: a 10 percent increase in abatement capital stock appears to reduce emissions by 6.9 percent. This translates into a sizable social return: one dollar of abatement capital stock is estimated to provide an annual social return of about 75 cents in pollution reduction benefits. Local regulatory stringency and productive efficiency also matter: plants in non-attainment counties have 43 percent lower emissions and plants with 10 percent higher productivity have 2.5 percent lower emissions. For pollution abatement operating costs we find (puzzlingly) positive, but always insignificant, coefficients.