10684 (v.2) Health and Safety and Economics 582

Area:

School of Public Health

Credits:

25.0

Contact Hours:

4.0

Individual Study:

1 x 4 Hours Weekly

Syllabus:

Provides students with an introduction to the economic way of thinking about occupational health and safety. Examination of economic context in which occupational health and safety operates and will develop the skills necessary to analyse occupational health and safety issues from an economic perspective. Topics covered include - Introduction to basic economic concepts, marginal cost, opportunity costs, economic evaluation, economic growth, macro economics, micro economics. Economic rationalisation for occupational health and safety, downtime, workers compensation, rehabilitation. Budgets, workplace heath and safety programs, conflict, compromise in health and safety and economic growth and development.

Unit Outcomes:

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to - Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the key concepts of economics such as opportunity cost, efficiency and marginal analysis and discuss their relevance to the field of OHS. Explain the competing factors involved in the demand and supply of OHS programs. Describe the characteristics of OHS programs from an economic perspective. Explain the methods of economic evaluation of OHS programs.

Text and references listed above are for your information only and current as of September 30, 2003. Please check with the unit coordinator for up-to-date information.

Unit References:

This unit is largely self-contained as far as the readings are concerned. However, at various times you may wish to follow up further references. The Curtin University Library can assist you with borrowing other books or material. There are excellent resources for Occupational Health and Safety professionals on the Internet. In particular the free information services provided by WorkSafe Western Australia. For example WorkSafe provide much of their material (you would otherwise have to pay for) on theweb -WorkSafe Western Australia's Safetyline (www.safetyline.wa.gov.au) WorkSafe Australia (www.nohsc.gov.au) We strongly encourage you to connect to the Internet if you have not already joined and Internet Service Provider (ISP). Please be critical inyour use of Internet resources. With the exception of on-line journal articles, most web information has not undergone the scientific peer review process. In these cases you need to consider the credibility of the information source. While it may be convenient, it is certainly not acceptable to download web information and submit it as your own work.Curtin University Computing Centre can provide you access to the Internet (modem.curtin.edu.au).

Unit Texts:

This unit does not have a prescribed text. A list of texts covering mainstream economics, health economics and occupational health and safety are provided in the guide but may vary depending on the availability of new materials. Currently, the Reader contains 20 readings that should be read as directed in the Guide. The readings are taken from Journals, books and reports. Additional references of relevance to the subject of Health, Safety and Economics can be obtained from journals such as the Journal of Occupational Health and Safety, the Journal of Occupational Medicine and the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Unit Assessment Breakdown:

Assignments (3) 70% (1 and 2 - 20% each, 3 - 40%), Examination 30%. The pass mark for each assignment is 50%. This is by grade/mark assessment.

Year	Location	Period	Internal	Area External	Central External
2004	Bentley Campus	Semester 2		Y	Y
2004	BPI Intern'l Group S'pore	Trimester 2A	Y
2004	Open University HK	Semester 2		Y
2004	Open University HK	Trimester 2A	Y