Regulating Industrial Accidents - An Economics Analysis of Market and Legal Responses

This doctoral thesis examines three aspects of industrial safety in the British labour market – the impact of industrial accidents on manufacturing industry wages during the 1970s; the basis for and impact of changes in English common law and employers’ liability rules on the accident rates in the 19th century regional coalmining sector; and the enforcement and impact of industrial safety legislation under the Factory Acts on British manufacturing sector accident rates during the 20th century. Each topic consists of a theoretical section which develops formal economic models of the interaction between accident, safety, and labour market variables (wages, turnover), and an econometric analysis designed to test the theory and determine the impact of industrial accidents or industrial safety law on the sections of the British labour market. The thesis was completed in 1981 when it represented the first systematic economic and empirical analysis, including estimates of the value of life, drawn from labour market theory and the development of a novel negotiated model of regulation