Do scheduled inspections help preventing fires?

Introduction. Most Post-Soviet countries share a method of regulation called RRR (Risk Regulation Reflex) (Blanc 2012). Scheduled inspections are one of the distinct features of this approach in Russia. GPN (Gosudarstvennyy Pozharnyy Nadzor — State Fire Regulation) especially favors this type of inspections. This agency accounts for one-third of all scheduled inspections in the country (N = 915 966). It cites fire prevention and the preservation of life as the primary objectives of these activities.
Aims and purposes. Our goal is to check if scheduled inspections actually achieve these objectives. Thus we test this normative statement empirically.
Methods. In order to do so, we use Poisson count regressions for panel-data and population-averaged panel-data models by using General Estimating Equations. In order to perform this test, we turn to numerous administrative data sources: regional data on the number of fires and its specifics, life loss, number of inspections and data on inspected businesses.
Results and discussion. Our analysis demonstrates that there is no tangible proof of scheduled inspections helping to avoid fires or victims during them. These results have serious implications as inspections are costly and time-consuming both for business and governmental agencies. This result somewhat contrasts with an existing scholarship. Randomized inspections by OSHA are proved to increase safety levels without damaging businesses' financial results (Levine, et al. 2012).
Conclusion. We argue that this seeming contradiction occurs due to general ineffectiveness of current scheduled inspections procedure.

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