Piece Rates and Workplace Injury: Does Survey Evidence Support Adam Smith?

Bender, K A and Green, C and Heywood, J S (2010) Piece Rates and Workplace Injury: Does Survey Evidence Support Adam Smith? Working Paper. The Department of Economics, Lancaster University.

[thumbnail of WorkplaceInjury]
Preview
PDF (WorkplaceInjury)
WorkplaceInjury.pdf - Submitted Version

Download (182kB)

Abstract

While piece rates are routinely associated with greater productivity and higher wages, they may also generate unanticipated effects. This paper uses cross-country European data to provide among the first broad survey evidence of a strong link between piece rates and workplace injury. Despite unusually good controls for workplace hazards, job characteristics and worker effort, workers on piece rates suffer a large 5 percentage point greater likelihood of injury. As injury rates are typically not controlled for when estimating the premium to piece rates, this raises the specter that a portion of the return to piece rates reflects a compensating wage differential for risk of injury.

Item Type:
Monograph (Working Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/aacsb/disciplinebasedresearch
Subjects:
?? DISCIPLINE-BASED RESEARCH ??
ID Code:
49001
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Jul 2011 21:27
Refereed?:
No
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
12 Sep 2023 04:19