Regulation by Shaming: Deterrence Effects of Publicizing Violations of Workplace Safety Laws

Publicizing firms' socially undesirable actions may enhance firms' incentives to avoid such actions. In 2009, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began issuing press releases about facilities that violated safety and health regulations. Using quasi-random variation arising from a cutoff rule OSHA followed, I find that publicizing a facility's violations led other facilities to substantially improve their compliance and experience fewer occupational injuries. OSHA would need to conduct 210 additional inspections to achieve the same improvement in compliance as achieved with a single press release. Evidence suggests that employers improve compliance to avoid costly responses from workers.

公开企业的社会不当行为或可增强企业规避此类行为的动机。2009年，美国职业安全与健康管理局（Occupational Safety and Health Administration，OSHA）开始发布针对违反安全健康法规设施的新闻稿。借助OSHA所遵循阈值规则产生的准随机变异（quasi-random variation），研究发现，公开某一设施的违规行为会促使其他设施显著提升合规性，并减少职业伤害的发生。OSHA若要实现与单篇新闻稿相当的合规性提升效果，需额外开展210次检查。证据表明，雇主提升合规性是为了避免工人采取代价高昂的应对措施。