The impact of occupational health and safety policy in firm value

There have been few studies that analyse the impact of OHS on the value of Australian firms; yet this is an important area of business for both small and large businesses. In this paper we pay particular attention to the impact of Victorian Workcover Authority prosecutions of listed Australian firms. USA based research shows that OHS prosecutions have a negative impact on firm value and we find some evidence to support the existence of negative share price reaction to OHS prosecution in our sample of listed Australian firms.