The Carcinogens, Mutagens or Reprotoxic Substances Directive (CMRD) sets binding occupational exposure limits for 41 hazardous agents in the EU. While the directive is intended to protect workers’ health, its economic consequences for firms have received little attention. This paper exploits the staggered introduction of the 2017 and 2019 CMRD amendments across NACE‑2‑digit sectors to identify short‑run firm‑level effects using a modern Difference‑in‑Differences (DiD) estimator (Callaway and Sant’Anna, 2021). Treatments are defined by high‑exposure divisions; controls are divisions not yet or never exposed. The analysis draws on Eurostat Structural Business Statistics (2005‑2020) and maps each regulated substance to affected sectors. Results show temporary increases in (i) purchases of intermediate inputs, (ii) gross investment in tangible assets, and (iii) full‑time‑equivalent employment, with effects concentrated in the first two post‑treatment years and fading thereafter. No statistically significant impacts are found on productivity, profitability, or the number of enterprises, indicating that compliance costs were absorbed through short‑run input reallocation rather than persistent efficiency losses. Robustness checks (parallel‑trend adjustments, sensitivity analysis, exclusion of early‑adopter Member States, and treatment‑intensity specifications) confirm the direction of the main effects but reveal that causal inference relies on relatively strong parallel‑trend assumptions. The study concludes that the CMRD induced modest, transitory adjustments at the division level without detectable medium‑run deterioration in firm performance. These findings suggest that occupational‑safety regulation can be compatible with maintaining competitiveness, provided firms have sufficient time to anticipate and implement compliance measures.
BERNHOFER Juliana;
CHIESA Stefano;
MERONI Elena Claudia;
2026-05-04
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC145860
978-92-68-38890-7 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40684,
OP KJ-01-26-152-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC145860,
10.2760/5970001 (online),
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