Workers’ Health in Latin America: An Econometric Analysis of Work-Related Injuries

The authors express their gratitude for the comments, suggestions and corrections offered by Richard Butler, Sudhanshu Handa, Christian Salas and William Savedoff. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not represent any official position or analysis attributable to the Inter-American Development Bank, the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, or any individual acting on their behalf. Abstract Occupational health is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue in Latin American and the Caribbean. One major concern is the absence of reliable data on its magnitude and economic consequences. The first part of the paper presents the official statistics on workplace injuries, which suggest that workers in the Region are exposed to occupational risks that are significantly higher than in established market economies. In the empirical part of the paper, we analyze health risk associated with occupational hazard in Mexico. This analysis sheds light on the relationships between the likelihood of reporting work-related impairment, characteristics of the workers, type of occupation and contractual relationship.