Authors libby rittenberg 877

Performance-oriented standards: Once a health and safety problem has been identified, the economic approach would be to allow individuals or firms discretion in how to address the problem as opposed to mandating a precise solution Flexibility allows a standard to be met in a less costly way and can have greater impact than command-and-control approaches Mr Viscusi cites empirical evidence that worker fatality rates would be about one-third higher were it not for the financial incentives firms derive from creating a safer workplace and thereby reducing the workers’ compensation premiums they pay In contrast, empirical estimates of the impact of OSHA regulations, most of which are of the command-andcontrol type, range from nil to a five to six percent reduction in worker accidents that involve days lost from work Opportunity cost of regulations: Mr Viscusi has estimated the cost per life saved on scores of regulations Some health and safety standards have fairly low cost per life saved For example, car seat belts and airplane cabin fire protection cost about $100,000 per life saved Automobile side impact standards and the children’s sleepwear flammability ban, at about $1 million per life saved, are also fairly inexpensive In contrast, the asbestos ban costs $131 million per life saved, regulations concerning municipal solid waste landfills cost about $23 billion per life saved, and regulations on Atrazine/alachlor in drinking water cost a whopping $100 billion per life saved “A regulatory system based on sound economic principles would reallocate resources from the high-cost to the low-cost regulations That would result in more lives saved at the same cost to society.” Sources: W Kip Viscusi, “Safety at Any Price?” Regulation, Fall 2002: 54– 63; W Kip Viscusi, “The Lulling Effect: The Impact of Protective Bottlecaps Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books/ Saylor.org 877