H. Allan Hunt and Marcus Dillender provide a succinct analysis of the state of WC programs in North America by focusing on three key performance issues: 1) the adequacy of compensation for those disabled in the workplace, 2) return-to-work performance for injured workers, and 3) prevention of disabling injury and disease. Following a brief introductory chapter that provides a discussion of the difficulties of trying to compare so many diverse programs, Hunt and Dillender devote a chapter to each of the three performance issues and provide empirical findings and useful guidance for policymakers and researchers as they set their sights on adapting WC for the twenty-first century.

In 1998, NASI convened a study panel of its Workers' Compensation Steering Committee (seep.145 for a list of panel members) to review the earnings replacement benefits under the variousstate and federal workers' compensation programs for workers injured or made ill by their jobs.The Benefit Adequacy Study Panel's task was to examine the extent to which workers'compensation wage replacement benefits paid to injured workers replace their lost wages, and toassess the adequacy of wage replacement.

The Michigan Closed Case Survey examined workers' compensation cases that were closed in the fall of 1978. Specific objectives of the study were to compare the workers' compensation experience of the insured and self-insured employer populations, to provide an empirical description of the workers' compensation system in Michigan, and to determine the role of litigation in the system. Based on abstracts of 954 unlitigated and 1,224 litigated workers' compensation cases, researchers drew the following conclusions: (1) while 48 percent of cases from employees of the big three automakers are litigated, other self-insured employers and insured employers experience 19 and 22 percent litigation rates respectively; (2) the litigation process generally results in more lump sum payments; (3) the big three automakers and the insured employers have similar average disability durations, whereas other self-insured employers enjoy average durations that are 30 percent lower; and (4) only 20 percent of beneficiaries actually received the two-thirds gross replacement rate specified by law. Because Michigan's workers' compensation litigation system seems to have grown into a miniature replica of the tort liability system it was supposed to replace, a general overhaul of the litigation system is urged. (MN)

Suggests that current perceptions of the robot population, robotics employment, & potential unemployment due to robotics have been exaggerated. Contends that the introduction of industrial robots & its effects will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.