Worker's Compensation Insurance and the Duration of Workplace Injuries

Author
Keywords
Abstract

This paper uses a new administrative micro-data set to examine the effect
of a legislated increase in the minimum and maximum workers’ compensation
benefit on the duration of workplace injuries in Minnesota. As a result of
legislation, workers in some earnings groups received higher benefits if they
were injured after the effective date of the benefit increase, while workers
in other earnings groups received the same benefit regardless of when they
were injured. The analysis compares the change in mean log injury duration
for workers who were affected by the benefit increase to that of workers who
were not affected by the benefit increase. The findings indicate that the
duration of injuries increased by 8 percent more for the group of workers that
experienced a 5 percent increase in benefits than for the group of workers
that had no change in their benefit. Additional findings suggest that
employees of self-insured firms who are injured on the job tend to return to
work faster than employees of imperfectly experience rated firms who incur
similar injuries.

Year of Publication
1990
Number
261
Date Published
02/1990
Publication Language
eng
Citation Key
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 3253, February, 1990
URL
Working Papers