ON THE RECURRENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES AND WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS MONICA GALIZZI * Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA ABSTRACT This paper represents the first study to estimate counts of individual occupational injuries and claims over long spells of working life (up to 13 years) in the USA. It explores data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. I found that 37% of all surveyed workers who had experienced one on-the-job accident reported at least one additional injury, but only 56% of all occupational injuries and illnesses resulted in workers’ compensation claims. I estimated different count models to assess the effect of different individual worker and job characteristics on individual injury counts and workers’ compensation claims counts. Lower educational levels, less tenure, work in dangerous industries and unskilled occupations, and job demands are found to be important determinants of multiple on-the-job injuries. The most interesting results, however, refer to the role played by individuals’ pre-injury characteristics: early exposure to dangerous jobs is among the main determinants of higher counts of occupational injuries later in life. Early health limitations are also significant predictors of recurrent workers’ compensation claims. These results provide new evidence about the important role played by both the health and the socioeconomic status of young people as determinants of their future occupational injuries. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 30 August 2010; Revised 15 February 2012; Accepted 2 April 2012 KEY WORDS: occupational injuries; workers’ compensation; determinants of health; count data 1. INTRODUCTION Since 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has reported a continuous and significant decline in the work- place injury and illness incidence rate among private industry employees. In 2008, firms in the USA reported 3.7 million non-fatal injuries and illnesses, corresponding to a rate of 3.9 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers (BLS, 2009). However, despite the apparent decline in occupational injuries, the National Safety Council’s estimates of the costs of these injuries have continued to increase since 2001, reaching $175 billion dollars in 2007 1 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). The magnitude of such numbers justifies the continuing interest in understanding which sectors and professions are more likely to experience these occupational incidents. Administrative data collected by the BLS indeed allow us to identify which sectors (trade, transportation and utilities, education and health services, manufacturing, construction), which firm sizes (more than 50 employees), which occupations (laborers, truck drivers, nursing aides, construction laborers), which event (overexertion), and which part of the body (back) are associated with higher incidence rates (BLS, 2009). This general picture misses a very important aspect of the phenomenon of occupational injuries, however. In fact, despite some existing evidence *Correspondence to: Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Falmouth 302 J, One University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854, USA. E-mail: Monica_Galizzi@uml.edu 1 The National Safety Council cost estimates have been found to be lower than those presented in other studies (Leigh et al., 1997). Also, they do not include on-the-job assaults and homicides. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. HEALTH ECONOMICS Health Econ. (2012) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/hec.2829