Occupational accidents and the economic cycle in Spain 1994–2014

• Published in: Safety science Vol. 106; pp. 273 - 284
• Main Authors: Fernández-Muñiz, Beatriz, Montes-Peón, José Manuel, Vázquez-Ordás, Camilo José
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Accidents; Economic analysis; Economic conditions; Economic cycle; Economic development; Economic growth; Effectiveness; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Incidence; Incidence rate; Occupational accidents; Occupational health; Occupational safety; Prevention; Regression analysis; Statistical analysis; Variance analysis; Spain; Occupational accidents; Incidence rate; Economic cycle
• ISSN: 0925-7535; 1879-1042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2016.02.029

•Spanish data show a strong relation between incidence rate and economic cycle.•The current economic upturn has caused a growth in occupational accidents.•Some critical sectors are responsible for most of the increase in accidents.•This could be due to work intensification and less OHS effort in these sectors. The sensitivity of occupational accidents to the economic cycle can shed light on the effectiveness of occupational health and safety policies. This work analyses the effect of the economic cycle on occupational accidents in Spain in the period 1994–2014. We first perform a regression analysis to evaluate the relation between GDP growth and incidence rate, comparing Spain and Germany. Statistics on GDP growth (OECD) and standardised incidence rates (from Eurostat) are used. Then, from a sectorial perspective, we perform a variance decomposition analysis to measure the effect of the increase in the incidence rates on the growth in the number of accidents in Spain between 2013 and 2014. We use data disaggregated by sector from national databases on occupational accidents to this end. Our results show a strong association between the economic cycle and occupational accidents in Spain. The recent economic crisis led to a strong reduction in the incidence rate, which accelerated a decrease that began in 2001. With the economic recovery beginning in 2014 the incidence rate has gone up again. This evidence indicates that economic growth in Spain comes at the cost of a high level of occupational accidents, showing the weakness of its prevention system. Moreover, the growth in the number of accidents tends to concentrate in certain sectors, and is more due to an increase in their incidence rate than to the growth in their workforce. Firms in these sectors have also implemented prevention practices less intensely than the firms in other sectors.