Avoiding “regulatory mismatch in regulating workplace ergonomics: The case for an informational approach

My basic point is simple: OSHA, in its zeal to ensure safer workplaces, should remember that its primary task as a regulatory agency is to correct market failures and should tailor its regulatory solutions to respond to market failures efficiently. The most efficient solution to a market failure will generally be the least restrictive regulatory alternative, for such an alternative maximizes the ability of individual actors to engage in wealthcreating private ordering. With respect to inadequate ergonomic protections in the workplace, the culprit market failure is not a negative externality but is — if there truly is a market failure — systematic informational inadequacies on the part of employees (about ergonomic risks) and employers (about available precautions). The most narrowly tailored regulatory solution, and therefore the one most likely to preserve the wealth-creation benefits of private ordering, would focus on providing the systematically under-produced information to the relevant actors.