Territorial efficiency: Analysis of the role of public work safety controls

This study analyzes the efficiency of Spanish provinces in a model that incorporates occupational health and safety (OHS) policy controls work accidents into analysis. Building on productivity models rooted non-parametric frontier methods, namely Data Envelopment Analysis, proposed approach allows development production function accurately joint desirable (GDP) undesirable (work accidents) outputs. The analysis 50 during 2003–2012 reveals territories drastically cut resources dedicated to OHS controls—in our case, inspections economic sanctions for violations—show higher inefficiency levels. Nevertheless, changes policies introduced by after change state economy 2008 had heterogeneous impact their level. Effective is not necessarily linked merely implementing more controls, but rather capacity efficiently allocate available monitor business activity. Policy implications future research avenues are discussed.