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Three Essays on Corporate Policy in Workplace Safety and Health

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dc.contributorBrooks, Robert
dc.contributorMortal, Sandra
dc.contributorParsons, Linda
dc.contributor.advisorGuo, Lixiong
dc.contributor.advisorMobbs, Shawn
dc.contributor.authorWang, Zhiyan
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-04T20:16:52Z
dc.date.available2022-02-04T20:16:52Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation includes three chapters on corporate policy in workplace safety and health. The research seeks to understand three economic determinants of workplace safety and health — hedge fund activism, shareholder litigation, and product market competition.Chapter 1 examines the impact of hedge fund activism on employee safety and health. Using a difference-in-differences framework to analyze regulatory safety records data, we find that the workplace incident rate rises after a company is targeted by an activist hedge fund. We also find that target firms reduce workplace safety-related investment, increase worker strain, and reduce management safety emphasis. Overall, the results imply that hedge fund activism induces managerial short-termism with respect to workplace safety. Chapter 2 studies the impact of shareholder litigation risk on workplace safety and health. Using the staggered state adoption of Universal Demand law that lowers shareholder derivative litigation risk to workplace safety, we find that weakened shareholder litigation rights compromise workplace safety. The impact is more pronounced for firms with weak governance, in less competitive, low union coverage, or low skilled industries. Overall, our findings suggest that shareholder litigation incentivizes corporate officials to uphold workplace safety. Chapter 3 examines the impact of product market competition on operational risk management. Using import penetration as exogenous variations for competition with regulatory safety records data, I find that increased import competition reduces workplace incident rate. Import competition also reduces safety violations and right tail risks of severe safety accidents. Overall, these findings suggest an operational channel via which firms manage competition risks.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/181760
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0004050
dc.identifier.otherWang_alatus_0004D_14659
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/8325
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectCorporate Governance
dc.subjectEmployee Welfare
dc.subjectHedge Fund Activism
dc.subjectProduct Market Competition
dc.subjectShareholder Litigation
dc.subjectWorkplace Safety and Health
dc.titleThree Essays on Corporate Policy in Workplace Safety and Healthen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Economics, Finance, and Legal Studies
etdms.degree.disciplineFinance
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.leveldoctoral
etdms.degree.namePh.D.

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