The Value of a Statistical Injury: New Evidence from the Swiss Labor Market

Kuhn, Andreas; Ruf, Oliver

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1120766

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The Value of a Statistical Injury: New Evidence from the Swiss Labor Market

28 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2008

See all articles by Andreas Kuhn

Andreas Kuhn

University of Zurich; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Oliver Ruf

University of Zurich

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 2008

Abstract

This paper deals with the compensation for non-fatal accident risk in Switzerland and presents empirical estimates of the value of a statistical injury. We approach the problem of endogenous sorting of workers into jobs with different accident risks based on unobserved productivity differences twofold. First, we have access to the number of accidents not only at the level of industries, but within cells defined over industry x skill-level of the job, which allows us to estimate risk compensation within groups of workers defined over the same cells. Second, we capitalize on the partial panel structure of our data which allows us to empirically isolate the wage component specific to the employer. Our different approaches to identification in fact yield very different estimates of the value of a statistical injury. Our preferred estimate gives an estimate of about 40,000 Swiss francs (per prevented injury per year).

Keywords: Compensating Wage Differentials, Value of a Statistical Injury, Risk Measurement, Unobserved Productivity

JEL Classification: J31, J17

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Kuhn, Andreas and Ruf, Oliver, The Value of a Statistical Injury: New Evidence from the Swiss Labor Market (April 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1120766 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1120766