Investigation into the relationship between fatal work accidents, national income, and employment rate in developed and developing countries

Abstract

Objectives: Industrial advances, as a result of globalization, causes many threats to the working life. These threats are generally associated with the level of economic development of countries. While threats from industrialization are decreasing in developed countries, developing countries are still faced with these threats. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between fatal work accidents (FWA), and independent variables which are national income (NI) and employment rate (ER) in a number of selected countries.

Methods: In this study the relationship between FWA and independent variables which are NI and ER of 18 developed and developing countries and a region, between 2006 and 2015, was analyzed by applying panel data analysis.

Results: According to panel data analysis, whilst a 1% increase in the NI reduces the FWA rate by 1.1%, a 1% increase in the ER results in an increase of approximately 4% in the rate of FWA.

Conclusions: As a result, there was a negative relationship between the FWA and NI growth and a positive relationship with the ER.

Keywords: employment rate; fatal work accident; national income; panel data.