Examination of occupational accident statistics in the construction sector in Turkey by panel time series analysis

The construction sector, which is known for the high incidence of occupational accidents in Turkey has an important place in the country with both being a locomotive sector and providing employment opportunities. Due to its dynamic structure, employee circulation, and weak safety culture; the construction industry is a sector where difficulties in occupational health and safety are common. It is a fact that these accidents in the sector differ according to the size of the workplace, especially small and medium-sized enterprises are considered risky compared to other larger enterprises. Within the scope of his doctoral study; the construction sector data obtained from the Social Security Institution for the period 2012-2021 was analyzed by classifying them according to the size of the workplace. In the given data number of death, injuries, and duration of incapacity as a result of occupational accidents were determined as dependent variables, while the number of workplaces and the number of employees were determined as independent variables. Panel time series was used as a method in the study moreover in this context, causality tests, panel VAR, impulse-response analysis, and variance decomposition were applied. As a result, it has been determined that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are more affected by the number of injuries, deaths and incapacity periods in account of occupational accidents than the increase in the number of workplaces and employees. According to the impulse-response analysis, it has been determined that a shock in the independent variables is damped around 3-4 months. In addition, variance decomposition results were examined in 4 periods, and the evidence suggested that a large part of the results of occupational accidents were self-explained even in recent periods.