The Causes of Occupational Accidents and Injuries in Romanian Firms: An Application of the Johansen Cointegration and Granger Causality Test

Larisa Ivascu; Muddassar Sarfraz; Muhammad Mohsin; Sobia Naseem; Ilknur Ozturk

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147634

The Causes of Occupational Accidents and Injuries in Romanian Firms: An Application of the Johansen Cointegration and Granger Causality Test

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul 18;18(14):7634. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18147634.

Authors

Larisa Ivascu^{1

2}, Muddassar Sarfraz^{2

3}, Muhammad Mohsin⁴, Sobia Naseem⁵, Ilknur Ozturk⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Management, Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 300191 Timisoara, Romania.
² Research Center in Engineering and Management, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 300191 Timisoara, Romania.
³ Binjiang College, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Wuxi 214105, China.
⁴ School of Business, Hunan University of Humanities, Science and Technology, Loudi 417000, China.
⁵ School of Economics and Management, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang 050043, China.
⁶ Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Cag University, Mersin 33800, Turkey.

Abstract

Organizational risks are present in any activity, so it is important to manage them properly. The jobs are dynamic and involve a series of processes and activities. The entire human resource is exposed to several risks. If these risks are approached correctly, the organizational capacity to achieve its objectives and vision will increase considerably. This paper aims to investigate the relationships between work accidents (fatal and non-fatal) and the causes that contribute to their occurrence (causes dependent on the executor, causes dependent on the means of production, workload-dependent causes, and work-dependent causes-the work environment). The augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test is employed to check the data stationarity series, while the Johansen test determines the cointegration relation of variables. The data have been collected from Romanian organizations. The vector error correction model (VECM) and Granger causality test are applied for speed of adjustment, nature, and direction of variables' relationship. This research demonstrated that both data series are free from the unit-root problem at first difference. The lag length criterions select the third lag for model fitness, and Johansen cointegration declares that variables are cointegrated for the long term. The vector error correction model shows the speed of adjustment from the short to the long run is 83.35% and 42.60% for work and fatal accidents. The study results show that fatal accidents have a series relationship with selected cases for the short run and have a long-run relationship with the means of production. Fatal accidents are directly related to means of production. Fatal accidents are not designed by executors, workload-dependent causes, or work environments in the short run. Fatal accidents are directly related to the means of production and sudden incidents happening in the long run. Fatal accidents are considered by executors, workload-dependent causes, or work environments in the short run. In the long run, fatal accidents are directly related to the means of production and sudden incidents happening.

Keywords: ARDL model; accident risk; occupational and fatal accident; safety management; workplace health.

MeSH terms

Accidents, Occupational*
Economic Development*
Gross Domestic Product
Humans
Romania
Workplace