ABSTRACT
This paper presents some evidence regarding the explanation of productivity growth variations with occupational safety level in the Greek lignite mining through an extended Cobb-Douglas production model. The model, which includes except for labor and capital, the numbers of disabling and fatal injuries over 1970–96 period, is developed and estimated in order to examine the extent to which the variations of productivity growth can be attributed to changes in safety conditions or shifts upward or downward of the product transformation frontier (dual—output production frontier where working accidents are considered as a joint, ‘negative’ output of the production process). For the estimation of Cobb-Douglas production model using regression analysis, Box-Cox transformation is applied with the aid of mathematical tools. In the light of the results of this paper, there may be a tradeoff between disabling injuries and output in Greek lignite mining, though a tradeoff between fatal injuries and output was not found.
