ABSTRACT
We study whether legal protections for stakeholder voice improve workplace safety. Using the staggered adoption of state-level anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) laws, we exploit establishment-level injury data in a within-firm, cross-establishment design to isolate the impact of enhanced speech protections. Establishments in adopting states experience significant declines in injury rates and counts relative to same-firm establishments in non-adopting states, with effects emerging shortly after adoption and increasing with statutory strength. Reductions are larger in industries with higher labor mobility and in communities with stronger reputational pressure. Further analyses suggest that anti-SLAPP laws enhance headquarters monitoring and reduce workload pressures. Our findings demonstrate that legal protections for speech have direct operational consequences, improving workplace safety through stronger stakeholder oversight and internal accountability.
Bozos, Konstantinos and Chen, Jie and Gao, Yang and Li, Mengxi and Yuan, Jiayi, Safe to Talk, Safe to Work: Anti-SLAPP Statutes and Workplace Safety. Posted to SSRN 28 May 2026.
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