Wayne Gray

Home RESEARCH Publications Teaching Links About Wayne Gray

Plant-level Impacts of Environmental Regulation
(with Ronald Shadbegian, UMass-Dartmouth)

I began at Census Bureau in 1992-93 examining impact of environmental regulation on productivity in steel, oil, and paper industries, with work since then being done at the Boston Research Data Center. We're currently working on a project (with EPA funding) to examine the impact of environmental enforcement on plant behavior, including the determinants of any differences across plants in how they respond to regulation, the impacts of enforcement on regulatory compliance and pollution levels, and whether enforcement effectiveness differs across states or between state and federal regulators. This research uses data from the paper, oil, and steel industries.

Pulp and Paper Industry Restructuring
(with Joseph Sarkis, Roger Kasperson, J. Scott Jiusto, Harry Fatkin)

This multi-year research project examined (with NSF funding) the impact of corporate restructuring in paper industry on risk management capabilities and environmental outcomes. It included econometric analyses, a survey of firms in the industry, and case study visits. We are currently preparing a book summarizing our results.

Manufacturing Industry Productivity Database
(with Randy Becker, U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies)

Since the early 1980s I have maintained and updated this database, containing information for ~450 manufacturing industries on inputs, output and prices (originally developed in my Ph.D. dissertation). The data, currently updated to cover the 1958-1996 period, is used by dozens of researchers worldwide to examine productivity-related issues.

OSHA's Impact on Workplace Hazards
(with John Mendeloff, University of Pittsburgh)

This research (funded by NIOSH) used plant-level analysis of impact of OSHA inspections on injuries, using BLS injury data. We compared results on OSHA effectiveness across the 1979-85, 1987-91, and 1992-98 periods. We also examined whether violations of specific OSHA regulations are associated with specific types of injuries. We are now starting a new project (also funded by NIOSH) to examine the connections between OSHA inspections, workplace hazards, and productivity at manufacturing plants.