We examine stock market volatility attributed to industrial incidents involving publicly traded
US companies, with contributing factors identified as company violations and safety errors, equipment failure, human error and vandalism. Incidents identified as safety violations elicited the highest
costs in terms of equity price reductions, but the volatility effects of these incidents tend to mitigate
within two weeks. Incidents caused by vandalism experience the sharpest volatility increases, but
reduce within two days. Volatility associated with incidents caused by equipment failure tends
to persist for almost four weeks. Injuries cost publicly traded companies $14 million each while
fatalities lead to equity market capitalisation reductions of between $465 and $720 million. These
results shed light on the equity market’s role as a driver for enhanced compliance with health and
safety regulation and with industry good practice.
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Additional Information:
Article Number: 101125
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Chemical incidents; Stock markets; Crisis Management; GARCH; Risk management