African Journal of Business Management Vol. 6(5), pp.

1999-2006, 8 February 2012

Available online at
http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM DOI:
10.5897/AJBM11.2439
ISSN 1993-8233 2012 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

The determinants of industrial accidents in the

Malaysian manufacturing sector
1 1 2
Saad Mohd Said , Fatimah Said * and Zairihan Abdul Halim
1
Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia.
2
Faculty of Business Management, MARA University of Technology, Perak, Malaysia.
Accepted 26 October, 2011

This study analyzes the determinants of industrial accidents across 44 four-digit manufacturing
industries in Malaysia from 1993 to 2008 through the business cycle and structural approaches. The
results of pooled ordinary least square and fixed-effects estimations revealed that industrial accidents
in Malaysian manufacturing sector were negatively influenced by firm size and positively influenced by
business cycle. Consistent with the findings of previous studies in other countries, the empirical
evidence of this study supports the pro-cyclical behavior of injury rates in manufacturing industries
towards business cycle. The analysis demonstrates that both structural and cyclical variation effects
are important determinants of industrial accidents in Malaysia.

Key words: Industrial accident, cyclical variation, structural characteristics, occupational safety and health
act.

INTRODUCTION

Studies on the incidence of industrial accidents or injuries
can be grouped into three approaches, namely: business
cycle, labor market and structural approaches. The
business cycle approach to workplace injuries provides
explanations as to how injury rates may be expected to
vary over the course of the economic cycle (Kossoris,
1938; Leigh 1985; Robinson and Shor, 1989). These
studies support pro-cyclical relation, showing that the
number of accident tends to increase during economic
upswings and vice versa. Nevertheless, this approach
does not explicitly consider the interaction of choices
made by employers between safety and profits and the
choices of employees between safety and wages in
determining the risk of an accident. This give rise to the
second approach, the market oriented approach to
industrial accident as proposed by Chelius (1974), Oi
(1974), and Sider (1985). Their studies relate the injury
rate to the market factors, such as wage and government
control. In general, their analysis shows that, under firms
optimization, occupational accident is determined by
wage level and employers incentives in accident pre-
vention. However, the impact of government intervention
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
fatimahs@um.edu.my.
through tax and compensation benefit is inconclusive.
The third approach focused on structural effect of the
industry such as workers characteristics, firm size, and
mechanization or capital intensity in the production
process (Oi, 1974; Cooke and Gautschi, 1981; Viscusi,
1986; Currington, 1986). Demographic differentials in
work injury rates could have been generated by several
structural forces. If other things being equal, (such as
type of industry, occupation, firm size and safety of the
work site), certain workers are innately more liable to be
involved in industrial accidents (Oi, 1974). Despite the
three approaches, it is often assumed that the causes of
accidents vary across sectors (Coleman, 1981). A survey
report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(1993) on fatal injuries in the United States (U.S.) during
1980 to 1989 shows that the largest number of fatalities
occurred in the construction sector, followed by tran-
sportation, manufacturing, and primary economic sectors.
A large body of existing empirical analysis on industrial
accidents focused on manufacturing and construction
sectors. This is due to their natural hazard and both
sectors are found to be highly responsive to the business
cycle, particularly in mature capitalist economies as
well as those in transition towards industrialized
economies
(Robinson and Shor, 1989; Davies et al., 2009).
With the vision of becoming an industrialized economy
2082 Afr. J. Bus. Manage.
0820
 Said et al. 2092
0920
by the year 2020, higher risk of accident as factors that influence The remainder of this
Malaysia has started its they are not accustomed industrial accidents in paper is structured as
Industria- lization effort to the hazard of Malaysian manufacturing follows: an overview of
since 1960s. workplace environment. sector. Hence, the industrial accidents in
Industrialization has been Therefore, a study of objective of our study is Malaysia and followed by
an integral part in the workplace injuries in to examine the literature review.
Malaysian development Malaysian manufacturing determinants of Subsequently, this study
strategies and sector is particularly industrial accidents in the discusses the model
manufacturing sector relevant since it would Malaysian manufacturing specification and data,
has shown to be one contribute to a greater sector during which is followed by
of the important understanding of 1993 to 2008. We specify results and discussion.
backbones and a major factors that determine our empirical model Finally, this study
contributor to the industrial accidents in the based on two concludes and offers
Malaysian economy. The sector. approaches, namely: some policy implications.
share of manufacturing Industrial accidents the business cycle
sector to Gross Domestic have been the subject of and structural
Product (GDP) increased growing number of approaches. Difficulties OVERVIEW OF
significantly from only academic research since of obtaining data on INDUSTRIAL
12.2% in 1970 to 30.1% the last three decades. wage premium and on ACCIDENT IN
in 2010. Apparently, this However, large body of employees protection MALAYSIA
sector has been the research focusing on the measures for each
major sector in creating causes of industrial industry prevent us from Tables 1 and 2,
employ- ment accidents is dominated incorporating the labor respectively present the
opportunities. In 1970, by empirical studies in market oriented approach number of industrial
employment in the industrialized countries, in our model. accidents by sectors and
manufacturing sector such as European by types of accident in
represented only 9.4% of countries and the U.S. In Malaysia during 1994 to
total employment Malaysia, existing studies 2008. There was
(Malaysia, 1976). In line on industrial accident significant decline in
with the industrialization were mainly focused on the total number of
process, the share of the issues of the industrial accidents
employment in the establishment and reported for all sectors,
manufacturing sector enforcement of the a decrease of 55.30%
increased over the occupational safety and from
years. As at health act (OSHA) and 125,506 in 1994 to
2010, the share of the evolution of safety 56,095 in 2008. Among
employment in the related regulations all sectors, the number of
sector has (Jamaluddin, 1994; accidents reported for the
incre Rahmah and Sum, 2000; manufacturing sector has
ased Mansur et al., 2003; been the highest
to Ariffin et al., 2006; throughout the period.
27.8 Rampal and Nizam, 2006; This reflects workers in
% Lugah et al., 2010; the manufacturing sector
Surienty et al., 2011). are exposed to higher
(Mala
Empirical study on accidental risks.
ysia,
industrial accidents in It can be observed
2010)
Malaysia, however are that the pattern of
.
still lacking and mostly accidents reported varies
It is often the case that
concentrated on the from one sector to
rapid expansion of
construction sector another, reflecting the
manufac- turing
(AbdulHamid et al., 2008; difference of hazard
industries during
Ali et al., 2010; Zakaria et across sectors. As shown
economic expansion is
al., 2010). Apart from in Table 2,
associated with large
20.60% of total fatal
employment of new these studies, Mansor et
accidents and 37.91% of
workers and new al. (2011) examine the
total disablement
technologies, influence of individual
accidents in 2008
machineries and factors and nature of job
involved workers from the
equipments. While the on accident among
manufacturing sector.
application of new workers at port sites.
Although there has been
technologies would However, to the best of
significant reduction of
expose new hazards to our knowledge, no
total accident in the
the workers, hiring new attempt has been made
manufacturing sector,
worker might as well pose to specifically investigate accident cases which
 2102 Afr. J. Bus. Manage.
1021
caused fatality and meant hiring new
disablement shown an workers who are not
increment. Between 1998 accustomed to the
and 2008, fatal accidents hazards of their new
increased from 256 to jobs and hence
268 cases, while increased the number of
disablement increased accidents reported. After
from 5,823 to 9,701 2000, total accidents
cases.
Figure 1 illustrates the
trend of industrial
accidents in the
manufacturing sector
reported from 1993 to
2008. Overall, total
industrial accidents in
the manufacturing sector
were on a declining
trend, except from 1998
to
2000 which shows an
upward trend. An upward
trend of industrial
accidents during this
period was attributable to
Malaysian economic
recovery from the Asian
financial crisis which hit
Malaysia in the middle
of 1997. The upward
and downward trend in
total accidents during
economic crisis and its
recovery partly explain
the influence of business
cycle over industrial
accidents. During
economic crisis in 1997,
firms tended to reduce
both the volume and cost
of production in response
to decrease in aggregate
demand. Reducing
production involves the
lay-off of newly hired,
less experienced and
unskilled workers who
are normally more
vulnerable to accident at
the workplace. Hence by
running the plants with
the experienced and
skilled workers during
economic recession helps
to reduce the number of
accident cases reported.
As the economy began
to recover in 1998, there
was an increase in
employment due to
increase in production.
Increase in employment
during economic upswing
 Said et al. 2112
1121

Table 1. Industrial accidents reported by sectors, Malaysia, (1994 to 2008).

Sectors 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2008

Agriculture, forestry and fishing 27,268 24,390 13,293 8,796 5,739 3,962
Mining and quarrying 1,406 763 643 736 541 368
Manufacturing 68,281 37,829 42,915 33,901 27,066 19,041
Electricity, gas, water and sanitary services 588 372 592 513 515 524
Construction 4,536 3,648 4,966 5,113 4,500 3,814
Trading 9,173 9,248 15,472 13,576 11,783 11,342
Transportation 4,437 3,276 4,800 4,142 3,653 3,305
Financial institution 592 367 7,293 6,195 5,386 718
Real estates, renting and business services 2,830 3,731 6,581 5,617 4,832 4,405
1
Total 125,506 89,049 98,281 81,003 68,008 56,095
1
Total accidents reported include total commuting accidents, Source: Labour and Human Resources Statistics (various issues), K uala
Lumpur: Ministry of Human Resource.

Table 2. Types of accidents reported by sectors, Malaysia, (1998 and 2008).

2122 Afr. J. Bus. Manage.
1221
Fatal accidents Disablement
Sectors
1998 2008 1998 2008
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing 69 154 1,730 1,769
Mining and Quarrying 9 15 130 194
Manufacturing 256 268 5,823 9,701
Electricity, gas, water and sanitary services 12 13 98 272
Construction 124 102 804 1,736
Wholesale and retail trade, restaurant and hotel 139 231 1,494 4,142
Transportation 83 121 635 530
Financial institution 15 16 162 1,649
Civil service 109 114 767 1,982
1
Total 1,135 1,301 13,698 25,592
1
Total includes fatal accidents and disablement from other services, Source: Labour and Human Resources
Statistics (1998) and (2008), Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Human Resource.
Total number of accidents

Figure 1. Industrial accidents in manufacturing sector, Malaysia, (1993 to 2008).

in the manufacturing Hazardous Chemicals) cyclical relation showing cyclical relation, a study
sector were steadily Regulations 1997. that the number of on Finnish manufacturing
declined. This could be 8. Occupational Safety accident tends to and construction
attributed to the and Health (Use and increase during industries by Saloniemi
remarkable improvement Standards of economic upswings and and Oksanen (1998)
in the safety and health Exposure of Chemicals vice versa. An inference during 1977 to 1991
conditions in the Hazardous to Health) as to why injury rates however provides no
workplace. The growing Regulations 2000. increase during economic evidence on the
concern among the 9. Occupational Safety expansion is the relationship between fatal
regulators and and Health (Notification of increase in employment accidents and business
employers over the Accident, Dangerous of new inexperienced cycle. Similarly, in a
safety and health issues Occurrence, workers in the workforce study of workplace
at workplace in Malaysia Occupational Poisoning who are vulnerable to injury for the United
has led to the introduction and Occupational accident at their new Kingdom from 1986 to
of the comprehensive Disease) Regulations workplace. A pattern of 2005 by Davies et al.
OSHA enacted in 1994 2004- NADOOPOD. decrease in injury rates (2009) found no
along its related observed by Kossoris significant relationship
regulations. The (1938) during the Great between business cycle
legislations that govern L Depression was related to and major injury.
issues pertaining to I workers initiatives to Oi (1974) analyses
occupational safety and T report injuries. Workers various aspects of
health at the workplace in E tend to avoid reporting industrial accidents in the
Malaysia are: R an injury, minor injuries in U.S. including the
A particular, in order to characteristics of
1. T secure their position in workers, labor turnover
Facto U the industry. and establishment
ries R While the size. It appears that over
and E aforementioned all ages, males were
Mach studies support the three times as likely to be
inery R pro- injured at work as
Act E females. As for labor
1967. V turnover, an increase in
2. I the accession rate or
Employ E new hires of less
ees W experienced workers
Social during high employment
Securit An early study on gives rise to an increase
y Act industrial accidents in the overall work injury
1969. relates its structural rate. Injury rates in
3. nature to the business relation to establishment
Occupationa cycles. Kossoris (1938) size exhibit an inverted
l Safety and was the first researcher U-shaped where the
Health Act who investigated the smallest and the largest
1994. relationship between establishments reporting
4. Occupational Safety business cycle and lower injury cases. Lower
and Health (employers industrial injuries for the injury frequency in larger
safety and health U.S. manufacturing establishments could be
general policy industry for the years explained by lower labor
statements) (Exception) 1929 through 1935. He turnover, larger fractions
Regulations 1995. showed that, in of workers in safer tasks
5. Occupational Safety general, the trend of and fewer young males.
and Health (control of injuries frequency rate Smith (1979) estimates
industrial major accident followed the trend of the impact of OSHA
hazards) Regulations industrial employment inspec- tions on the
1996. thus provides an early U.S. manufacturing
6. Occupational Safety indication of pro- cyclic industry for the years
and Health (safety and behavior of industrial 1972 to 1974. The study
health committee) accident towards finds that injury as it
Regulations 1996. business cycle. Studies pertains to inspection
7. Occupational Safety by Cooke and Gautschi effect varies across plant-
and Health (1981), Viscusi (1986) size and hazardous plant
(Classification, Packaging and Robinson and Shor categories. Inspection
and Labeling of (1989) support the pro- effects were larger and
statistically significant for and three variables to
the smallest plant and capture the influence of
tend to be greater in the business cycle, namely
more dangerous plants. the percentage change in
Similarly, Smith (1979) the industrys
suggests that the employment, average
relationship between firm weekly work hours and
size and injury rates average overtime
probably is an inverted U- hours. While
shaped. One possible
explanation to the
relationship is that small
firms are less hazardous
and easily monitored,
while large firms, with
the advantage of
economies of scale are
able to apply safety
machineries and
equipments.
Cooke and Gautschi
(1981) examined the
impact of OSHA citation
activities and plant-
specific programs upon
changes in the injury rate
for 113 Maine
manufacturing plants
over the period 1970 to
1976. Apart from OSHA
citations, other factors
included in the study are
plant size and business
cycle. The study employs
the change in the
percentage of
production workers
receiving first payments
as a proxy measure of
business cycle. They
found that both firm size
and business cycle were
highly significant to injury
rates. While firm size
influences injury rates
negatively, business cycle
affects positively. They
concluded that OSHA
investigation activities
have reduced the injury
rate substantially for the
case of larger firms.
Using a sample of 20
two-digit U.S.
manufacturing industries
from 1973 to 1983,
Viscusi (1986)
investigates the impact of
OSHA on workplace
safety. The inde- pendent
variables included in the
analysis are production
workers, female workers
production workers are occupational injuries and OSHA is also different support and legislation on
found to be positively types of Italian industry across types of industry occupational safety and
related to accidents, during 1995 to 2000 with where labor-intensive health (OSH)
female workers showed a large sample of firms were found to be implementation in small
the reverse effect. A 2,983,753 firms. They more sensitive towards and medium enterprises
positive relationship identify four major factors the regulations. A recent (SMEs) in Malaysia. The
between business cycle that influenced accident study by Surienty et al. correlation analysis
and injury rate is only frequency, namely: (2011) investigates the performed on surveyed
significant for percentage economical factors, impact of demographical data of 35 companies
change in the industrys technologies used, varia- shows that only
employment. The results organizational factors and bles (company size, management and
thus support for pro- human factors and relate type of organization and external support were
cyclical relationship these factors to the firm years of establishment), significant to OSH
between employment and size effect. An inverse management implementation where
industrial accidents. relationship between commitment, external both variables have
Currington (1986) accident frequency and positive correlation.
analyses the impact of firm size is found in all Several studies have
OSHA standards on injury types of industries. The attempted to examine the
frequency rates for 18 results of the study causes of industrial
manufacturing industries suggest that the four accidents in the
in New York from 1964 factors are unfavorable construction sector in
to 1976. The analysis of for small firms which Malaysia (AbdulHamid
the study is performed prove to be more liable to et al., 2008; Ali et al.,
separately for all high accident frequency. 2010, Zakaria et al.,
injuries, caught in Previous studies on 2010). Through
machine, and struck industrial accidents in analysis made on
by machine injuries. Malaysia are mainly surveyed data, they
The independent focused on the show that the main
variables included are evolution and causes of accident at
unionization, capital enforcement of OSHA construction sites are
intensity, firm size, new and level of awareness workers negligence,
hire rate, employment and knowledge on safety failure to obey the work
ratio and production procedures, work at
issue among employers
workers. All these high elevation, operate
and employees
variables are only equipments without
(Jamaluddin,
significant for all injuries safety devices, poor site
1994; Mansur et al.,
except the employment management and low skill
2003; Ariffin et al.,
ratio, a proxy measure and knowledge.
2006; Rampal and
for cyclical variation. A study on accidents
Nizam, 2006; Lugah et
Among the significant at port sites by Mansor
al., 2010). As shown by
variables, firm size is their studies, safety and et al. (2011) focuses on
found to be the only health regulations in two common dimensions
variable which affects Malaysia have evolved of workplace accidents,
injury frequency from very prescriptive namely individual and
negatively. legislations to detailed job related factors.
Jeong (1997) analyses technical provisions and Using 177 surveyed
the characteristics and to the one that is more samples, correlation test
causes of accidents for flexible where self- results show that stress
Korean manufacturing regulations are and fatigue, unsafe
industry during encouraged under action, machinery and
1991 to 1994. Analysis OSHA tools, design of
of causes of accidents 1994. Rahmah and workplace, training
in the study includes firm Sum (2000) on the procedures are the
size, age and work other hand, analyze the significant factors that
experience. The analysis impact of OSHA on labor contribute to workplace
shows that larger market demand in accident.
companies tend to have 50 manufacturing firms.
a lower accident rate and The results of cross-
MODEL
adult and less experience sectional analysis of their SPECIFICATION
workers are more prone study show that OSHA AND DATA
to accident. Fabiano et has a significant impact DESCRIPTION
al. (2004) examine the on the demand for labour
relationship between by firms. The impact of This study analyzes the
determinants of industrial u i
accidents in 44 r a
Malaysian manufacturing y t
industries during the period i
from 1993 to o
2008. The structure of our r
a n
data set which contains both
cross- sectional and time t
e =
series satisfies the
balanced panel data S
estimation technique. Using I
panel data, with a large = n
number of data points and d
high degree of freedom u
F s
helps to reduce the multi-
i t
collinearity problem (Hsiao,
r r
2003). To identify which
m y
character of our data set
belongs to, either fixed or -
random, the Hausman s s
specification test is first i p
performed. The test results z e
suggest that the industry- e c
specific effects are fixed K i
and the general fixed- f
effects model is presented as i
I
follows: c
=

i
C
n
(1) a
t
p
e
where Yit is the dependent i
r
variable, i is entity, t is time, t
c
i (i = 1 . . . a
e
.n) is the n entity-specific l
p
intercept, and i is the t
coefficient for independent i s
variable, Xit and it is the n =
error term. Based on the t Coeffici
general fixed-effects model, e ent for
we rewrite Equation 1 into the n each
following s indepe
s i ndent
p t variable
e y ;
c PW =
i Percentage of =
f production
i workers in the
E
c industry
r
a F=
r
t Percentag
o
i e of
r
o female
n workers in
the t
:
industry e
C r
V m
(2) Where: = = Industry
I =
R C
y Y
= c
e
l
a
i
T c r
h a
e l

i v
n a
j r
Table 3. Descriptive statistics.

Variables IR S KI PW F CV
Mean 3.90 134.21 120.63 57.86 21.33 5.60
Median 1.99 75.80 73.76 65.06 17.40 3.06
Maximum 54.86 1399.63 1367.41 92.17 75.20 136.61
Minimum 0.00 1.51 1.76 0.13 0.00 -83.87
Std. Dev. 5.50 202.49 174.46 21.26 18.20 23.65
The injury rate, as a proxy for
industrial accidents, is
measured by the percentage
of accidents reported per
worker employed. Firm size
is measured by employees
per establishment and
capital intensity is measured
by the value of fixed assets per
worker where these two
independent variables take
the natural logarithm form.
Production workers and
female workers are
respectively measured as a
percentage of total
employment. The cyclical
variation variable is measured
by the percentage change of
total employment in the
manufacturing industries.
Most studies on
occupational accidents
and business cycle
support the existence of pro-
cyclical relationship where the
number of accidents tends
to increase during economic
upswings and reduce during
economic recession (Kossoris,
1938; Leigh, 1985; Robinson
and Shor, 1989). Thus, we
expect a positive relationship
between injury rates and
cyclical variation. Similarly,
capital inten- sity, production
worker, and female worker
are expected to have positive
influence over the injury rates.
As for firm size, a negative
relationship with injury rate is
expected in the sense that
larger firms are better in
controlling accidents among
workers as compared to
smaller firms (Cooke and
Gautschi, 1981; McVittie et al.,
1997)
Three types of industrial
accidents are included in
the study, viz.
fatal accidents, permanent
disability and t emporary
disability. Data on industrial
accidents were obtained from
annual report published by
social security organization
(SOCSO). The annual survey
of manufacturing industry,
published by the Department
of Statistics, provides data on
total employees, fixed assets
and total establish- ments for
each industry. Unpublished
data of production workers in
manufacturing plants were
obtained from the
Department of Statistics. W e
precede the analysis of this
study by estimating our
balanced panel data using
pooled ordinary least square
(OLS) method and compare
the results with those under
Equation 2 specification which
is the fixed effects model. which is Model 1. As fixed effects method. One
Table 3 presents a shown in Model 1, firm possible explanation for
summary of the descriptive
statistics of the variables size, capital intensity the difference is that the
used in this study. During and cyclical variation variation among
1993 to 2008, the average are the significant industries in terms of
injury rate among the sample variables under pooled capital intensity is not an
manufacturing industries was OLS. R-squared value for important factor that
approximately 3.90% ranging causes the injury rates to
from a minimum of 0 to a
pooled regression is
maximum of lower than that of Models vary across the sample
54.86%. The lowest and the 2 and 3 whereby only industry.
highest injury rate came from 25% of variation in Production workers
tanneries dependent variable can (KI) and female workers
and leather finishing be explained by the (F) are found to have
industries and metal and positive influence over
wood working machinery explanatory variables
manufacturing, respectively. included in the model. injury rates (IR) and only
The average for firm size and Models 2 and 3 are the significant under fixed-
capital intensity was 134.21 fixed-effects estimation effects estimation. Our
and 120.63%, respectively. results. Under this finding with respect to
Based on the cut-off point of production workers is
specification, we treat
120, on average, the
Model 2 as the reference consistent with Viscusi
Malaysian manufac- turing
industries can be classified model. In Model 3, (1986). The result is
as capital intensive or production workers (PW) justifiable as production
heavy industry (UNIDO, 1985; is excluded to isolate the workers are those who
Fatimah and Saad, 2004). are directly involve in
possible influence of this
The mean for total production
variable over female firms operation and
worker and female worker
were 57.86 and 21.33%, workers (F) resulting from having direct contact with
respectively. The average our measurement machineries and
cyclical variation was 5.60% method. equipments. Hence,
throughout the period of The results of this study increase in the fraction of
study. production workers in
reveal a strong negative
relationship between firm manufacturing plants
size (S) and injury rate would increase the injury
R (IR) as the sign of the rates. In contrast, Viscusi
E coefficient and its level of (1986) found a negative
S significance are rela- tionship between
U consistent under the female workers and
L
three models. This finding industrial accidents where
T is consistent with the he expected that higher
S theory (Oi, 1974; Smith, fraction of female workers
1979) and supports the involve less physical
A effort and pose lower risk.
empirical findings of
N previous studies (Cooke A positive sign of
D and Gautschi, 1981; female workers in this
McVittie et al., 1997). It study leads us to draw a
D turns out that the larger number of inferences. A
common explanation is
I the firm, the lower the
S injury rates. This could
C be attributed to a
U proper safety
S precaution practiced by
S larger firm or adoption of
I safety machinery and
O equipments.
N The coefficient for
capital intensity (KI) is
The regression results for positive and highly
three different model significant under pooled
speci- fications are OLS (Model 1) and
reported in Table 4. The consistent with the
second column of the findings of Currington
(1986). However, this
table shows the results
from pooled OLS variable appears to be
estimates, insignificant under the
Table 4. Determinants of industrial accidents in Malaysian manufacturing industries.

Explanatory variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Firm size (S) -1.611 -1.780 -1.876
(-7.78)*** (-5.24)*** (-5.58)***

Capital intensity (KI) 1.035 0.339 0.517

(4.22)*** (1.07) (1.50)

Production workers (PW) 0.013 0.020

(1.64) (1.82)**

Female workers (F) -0.008 0.013 0.036

(-0.55) (0.60) (2.02)**

Cyclical variation (CV) 0.021 0.018 0.017

(3.57)*** (2.47)** (2.35)**

R squared 0.25 0.49 0.49

Adjusted R squared 0.24 0.44 0.44
F-statistic 35.44 9.84 9.91
Standard error of regression 4.06 4.11 4.11
Durbin-Watson statistic 1.90 1.52 1.52
Figures in parentheses are t-statistics value. ** Significant at 5% level, *** Significant at 1% level.
to relate accident to the structural and business study are generally given to reduce business-
natural characteristics of cycle approach, our panel significant to injury cycle-related injuries.
women which physically data was tested using rates and consistent Since business cycle is
are less capable of pooled OLS and fixed- with the findings of an unpredictable
performing some tasks effects estimation existing studies. phenomenon, advanced
(Lin et al., 2008). method. The explanatory The most robust preventive efforts towards
Industrialization would variables included in the findings of this study are potential accidents
normally result in analysis of this that industrial accidents among workers during
increase participation of were negatively economic upswing might
women in manufacturing influenced by firm size be useful
industries and most of and positively influenced
them are assigned the by cyclical variation.
same tasks as performed Consistent with
by men. In addition, previous studies, this
workplace and machinery study found that large
designs are usually manufac- turing firms are
designed to fit males more capable of
capacity (Taiwo et al., controlling accidents at
2008). Hence, these workplace as compared
factors would expose to small firms. This
female workers to the reflects greater level of
similar risks faced by awareness on OSH
male workers, but the matters among large
impact would be firms. Efforts by
different as far as employers from SMEs
women physical in Malaysia in promoting
anthropology is safety and health in the
concerned. workplace are still
Our result for business lacking (Rampal and
cycle (CV) impact on Nizam, 2006) possibly
industrial accident is due to low
consistent with pro- awareness over OSH
cyclical relation in requirements (Surienty
previous studies et al.,
(Kossoris, 1938; Leigh 2011). Under OSHA 1994
1985; Cooke and (Section 30), every
Gautschi, 1981; employer shall establish
Robinson and Shor, a safety and health
1989). The coefficient committee at the place of
for cyclical variation work if there are 40 or
remains positive and more persons employed.
significant under the three Lack of law enforcement
different estimations, sug- on smaller firms is
gesting that business possibly the underlying
cycle is an important factor that they are
determinant of injury rate less sensitive towards
in the Malaysian OSH issues. Therefore,
manufacturing sector. to improve safety at
workplace in Malaysian
manufacturing
CONCLUSIO industries, higher
N AND priorities should as well
POLICY be given to small firms
IMPLICATIO through supple- mentary
N and special inspection to
ensure that small firms
This paper sought to apply the appropriate
analyze the determinants safety and health
of Indus- trial accidents in standards and codes of
the Malaysian practices.
manufacturing sector Similarly, focus of
during the period 1993 safety regulations
to 2008. Adopting the should as well be
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