The question
What would the lower trigger height cost contractors, and how much would it save in avoided worker deaths and injuries?
What BEAR found
Compliance costs rise by $53.6 to $63.8 million a year by 2020 and $53.6 to $105.7 million a year by 2030. Benefits are about $64 million a year: $24.72 million from about 2.8 avoided deaths a year and $38.87 million from fewer non-fatal injuries.
The rule mainly affects residential framing (570 establishments, 15,669 employees) and roofing (1,945 establishments, 13,303 employees), and more than 95 percent of affected firms are small businesses. The effect on real gross state product is about 0.007 percent.
Method
The BEAR dynamic CGE model (60 sectors on 2015 IMPLAN data), run over 2015 to 2030 against the Department of Finance’s June 2017 conforming forecast, with low, average and high cost scenarios under both DOF and California Building Industry Association housing-growth assumptions.
Team
David Roland-Holst, Samuel Evans and Sam Heft-Neal.
Public record
- SRIA as submitted to the Department of Finance (PDF)May 2019
- Department of Finance comment letter (PDF)June 28, 2019
- Standards Board rulemaking pageCites the BEAR SRIA
How to cite
Roland-Holst, D., Evans, S., and Heft-Neal, S. (2019). Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment: Title 8, Residential Fall Protection Standards. Berkeley Economic Advising and Research. Prepared for the California Department of Industrial Relations.
