Assessing the Economic Burden of Occupational Hazards in Healthcare Administration: A Cross-Country Panel Data Analysis

Assessing the Economic Burden of Occupational Hazards in Healthcare Administration: A Cross-Country Panel Data Analysis | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF comment Assessing the Economic Burden of Occupational Hazards in Healthcare Administration: A Cross-Country Panel Data Analysis Mohannad M. Alarqan, Shaker Q. M. Nawasreh This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8386995/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Occupational hazards in the healthcare sector impose a significant, yet often imprecisely quantified, economic burden on national economies. Comparative, cross-country evidence remains scarce, and existing studies often use overly broad proxies that fail to isolate the specific costs of occupational risk. This paper aims to bridge this gap by developing and validating a generalizable panel data framework to assess the economic burden of occupational hazards (EBOH) across a diverse panel of 45 countries over the period 2008–2022. We employ a Fixed Effects (FE) model using Public Health Expenditure on Employment Injury (% of GDP) as our dependent variable and a composite Occupational Hazard Index (OHI) as our primary explanatory variable. The model indicates that a one-unit increase in the OHI is associated with a statistically significant 0.085 percentage point increase in public expenditure on employment injury as a share of GDP (p<0.01). The result is robust to alternative specifications, simulation-based sensitivity analysis, and a lagged-variable model to address endogeneity. Our findings demonstrate that a higher prevalence of occupational hazards is demonstrably linked to a greater direct economic burden on public finances. The framework provides a robust tool for policymakers, underscoring that investing in occupational hazard prevention is not merely a social imperative but a fiscally prudent, cost-effective strategy for preserving public resources and enhancing healthcare system sustainability [1,2,3]. Healthcare Economics Occupational Hazards Economic Burden Panel Data Health Policy Resource Allocation Econometric Modeling Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8386995","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"comment","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":629106037,"identity":"36af53c1-c7b6-4a2a-9696-4a82b5234103","order_by":0,"name":"Mohannad M. 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Comparative, cross-country evidence remains scarce, and existing studies often use overly broad proxies that fail to isolate the specific costs of occupational risk. This paper aims to bridge this gap by developing and validating a generalizable panel data framework to assess the economic burden of occupational hazards (EBOH) across a diverse panel of 45 countries over the period 2008–2022. We employ a Fixed Effects (FE) model using Public Health Expenditure on Employment Injury (% of GDP) as our dependent variable and a composite Occupational Hazard Index (OHI) as our primary explanatory variable. The model indicates that a one-unit increase in the OHI is associated with a statistically significant 0.085 percentage point increase in public expenditure on employment injury as a share of GDP (p\u003c0.01). The result is robust to alternative specifications, simulation-based sensitivity analysis, and a lagged-variable model to address endogeneity. 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