The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

Conventional wisdom once held that the demand for addictive substances like cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs was unlike that for any other economic good and, therefore, unresponsive to traditional market forces. Recently, however, researchers from two disparate fields, economics and behavioral psychology, have found that increases in the overall price of an addictive substance can significantly reduce both the number of users and the amounts those users consume. Changes in the "full price" of addictive substances—including monetary value, time outlay, effort to obtain, and potential penalties for illegal use—yield marked variations in behavioral outcomes and demand. __The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse__ brings these distinctive fields of study together and presents for the first time an integrated assessment of their data and results. Unique and innovative, this multidisciplinary volume will serve as an important resource in the current debates concerning alcohol and drug use and abuse and the impacts of legalizing illicit drugs. Although the term "smokeless tobacco" (ST) was coined by the tobacco industry to represent snuff and chewing tobacco as safer alternatives to smoking cigarettes, ST use has been linked to increased risk for oral cancers and other types of oral disease (USDHHS 1986a). This volume contains papers presented at a conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 27-28 March 1997. Includes bibliographical references and indexes