IF OSHA IS SO BAD, WHY IS COMPLIANCE SO GOOD

Since its inception twenty-five years ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been the subject of an intense publi c debate on its effectiveness, This article analyzes the determinants of establishment-level compliance with specific safety and health stan dards as a means of assessing the agency's effectiveness, The empirica l results suggest that OSHA has had large impacts on business complian ce behavior, despite its low regulatory profile. These results indicat e that government regulatory agencies can substantially change private -sector behavior, evert given limited regulatory resources.