How workplace injuries affect jobs and pay for different racial and ethnic groups
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Economic Consequences of Occupational Injuries
This project uses California workers' compensation and earnings records to estimate how workplace injuries change employment, wages, and benefits for people of different racial and ethnic groups.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Rand Corporation NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Santa Monica, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11125735 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will link workers' compensation claims to earnings records from California and use a validated name-and-geography algorithm (mBIFSG) to impute race and ethnicity for workers in the data. They will compare people with minor, medical-only injuries to those who lost time from work to see how injuries affect later employment, pay, and workers' compensation benefits. Statistical methods, including Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, will be used to explore what factors explain any racial or ethnic gaps in economic outcomes. The work uses existing administrative records rather than enrolling participants directly.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: This analysis focuses on California workers who experienced workplace injuries, especially those who missed work because of an injury.
Not a fit: People outside California, those without formal workers' compensation claims, or workers whose race and ethnicity are not captured well by imputation may not be represented or benefit directly from the findings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could reveal unequal financial harms after injury and inform policies or programs to better protect and support injured workers from marginalized racial and ethnic groups.
How similar studies have performed: The name-and-geography imputation method has been validated in other settings, but using it to document racial and ethnic differences in post-injury economic outcomes is a new application.
Where this research is happening
Santa Monica, United States
- Rand Corporation — Santa Monica, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Dworsky, Michael — Rand Corporation
- Study coordinator: Dworsky, Michael
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.