Effect of National Insurance Database on Contractor’s Safety Behaviour Using Agent-Based Model

Abstract

The labor-intensive construction industry is considered one of the most hazardous sectors. In the past three decades, safety research has focused on developing models that can be used as tools to improve contractors' safety behavior. Safety behavior of contractors is influenced by many factors—one of which is the presence of a national database of safety records that is used by insurance companies to determine premiums based on past safety performance. In many countries, such a national database does not exist which may remove an important incentive for contractors to improve their safety performance. This study uses an agent-based model to simulate the interactions among project stakeholders to observe evolving safety patterns. The model mimics a national database that stores information about safety records of all contractors in the market. This allows to assess the influence of such a database on the market safety climate and to depict evolving contractors’ safety patterns as a result of possible changes in stakeholders’ safety-related decisions. Such decisions include those taken by (1) insurance companies regarding whether to insure contractors and to increase or decrease premium rates and (2) contractors vis-à-vis enhancing their safety practices and developing full-fledged safety programs. The results of this research indicate that the implementation of the database significantly impacts a contractor’s safety behavior. The database effectively increased the number of contractors upgrading their Contractor Safety Awareness Level (CSAL), resulting in a notable reduction in the total number of accidents. Moreover, the implementation of the database led to an overall increase in the average safety awareness within the market. As a result, it created a stronger incentive for contractors to update their safety practices. The national database developed will store safety records of all contractors in the market and will be shared by all insurance companies. This will incentivize contractors to invest in improving their safety performance and help insurance companies minimize their losses.