WORKPLACE SAFETY AND MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY IN THE UNITED STATES: A DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH APPROACH

Authors: Oluwaseyi Rachael Hinmikaiye*, Omotolani Eniola Akinbolajo, Olajumoke Deborah Akanbi & Owolabi Williams Adeyemi

ABSTRACT

The study empirically investigated the relationship between workplace safety and manufacturing productivity in the United States. Annual time series secondary data for the period 2000-2022 were collected and analyzed in the study. Data generated include manufacturing value added, public health expenditure, domestic private expenditure, gross fixed capital formation, and labor force. Which were obtained from the World Development Indicators (WDIs, 2024). The study used descriptive statistics in form of tables, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) for robustness checks. The study established among other things that in the short run the interactive health and labor variable has positive relationship with manufacturing output, whereas it was only significant in one lagged period. As found, a percentage increase in the interactive variable will increase manufacturing output by 11.53 percent (t = 3.34, p < 0.05). In the ARDL long run results, the interactive variable is both significant and negative, whereas as revealed by the FMOLS, a more advanced long run estimator, a positive and significant long run relationship was obtained, such that a percentage increase in the interactive variable will increase manufacturing productivity 4.52 percent (t = 4.46, p < 0.01). Considering that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce, the study recommends that regulatory authority in the United States makes it compulsory for manufacturing organization to comply by statutory guidelines and policies on workplace safety.

Keywords: Workplace Safety, Occupational Health & Safety, Manufacturing Productivity, Health Expenditure.

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