The impact of OSHA inspections on manufacturing injury rates.

This paper estimates the effects of OSHA inspections on injury rates at the plant level. The methodology involves comparing injury rates of plants inspected 'early'in a given year with those inspected "late" in the year, after controlling for prior injury rates and other factors. The results suggest that OSHA inspections in 1973 reduced injury rates by about 16 percent, but that 1974 inspections had no statistically significant impact.