Economic evaluation of investments for workplace safety

According to recent studies of ISSA (International Social Security Association, 2011), investment in prevention is a proper example of optimal utilization of companies\u2019 resources, because it involves relatively quick and competitive returns if compared with usual investments in production fields. A complete feasibility study considers returns due not only to accident reduction, but also to recent introduction of public incentives, that are often the only tangible benefits for SMEs, statistically characterized by low rates of accidents at work. For a deep analysis of investment in prevention it is necessary also to evaluate un-safety costs. These costs can be charged to community, like medical care and insurance costs for compensation, or to the companies, like loss of production, downtime associated with judicial activity, damage recovery, additional compensations and related legal costs, fines and penalties, increase in insurance premium, administrative and overtime work expenses. Investments in prevention concern planning, implementation and maintenance of equipment, machinery and management systems that preserve health and safety of workers. The paper deals with the issues mentioned above and presents an analysis model in the Italian context. To calculate the present value of such investments made at different times, it is necessary to estimate their current effectiveness, taking into account the various maintenance costs. The result can be seen as \u201casset book of safety\u201d