Evidence Library

Using Behavioral Insights to Help Employers Resolve OSHA Citations: Trial Design and Findings (Final Report)
Evidence | Publications

Using Behavioral Insights to Help Employers Resolve OSHA Citations: Trial Design and Findings (Final Report)

DOL Behavioral Interventions Project Final Report
Published: May 31, 2017
Publisher: Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research
Human Services Employment Analytics & Operations

Associated Project

Behavioral Interventions for Labor-Related Programs

Time frame: 2014-2017

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Labor

Authors

Greg Chojnacki

Jonah Deutsch

Samia Amin

Irma Perez-Johnson

Matthew Darling

Jaclyn Lefkowitz

Key Findings

Key Finding:

  • Changes informed by behavioral science were made to Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA’s) citation process, and this increased employers’ rate of response to the citations by 3.9 percentage points in Phase 1 of the intervention and 5.4 percentage points in Phase 2. In Phase 2 under the new process, employers were 4.4 percentage points less likely to be referred to the national office for debt collection.

This report provides findings from Mathematica’s behavioral insights study conducted for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Efficiency Meets Impact.
That's Progress Together.

To solve their most pressing challenges, organizations turn to Mathematica for deeply integrated expertise. We bring together subject matter and policy experts, data scientists, methodologists, and technologists who work across topics and sectors to help our partners design, improve, and scale evidence-based solutions.

Work With Us