The Opium Wars, Opium Legalization, and Opium Consumption in China

Jeffrey Miron () and Chris Feige

No 11355, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The effect of drug prohibition on drug consumption is a critical issue in debates over drug policy. One episode that provides information on the consumption-reducing effect of drug prohibition is the Chinese legalization of opium in 1858. In this paper we examine the impact of China's opium legalization on the quantity and price of British opium exports from India to China during the 19th century. We find little evidence that legalization increased exports or decreased price. Thus, the evidence suggests China's opium prohibition had a minimal impact on opium consumption.

JEL-codes: K4 N4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-law, nep-sea and nep-tra
Note: EH ITI
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Chris Feige & Jeffrey Miron, 2008. "The opium wars, opium legalization and opium consumption in China," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 15(12), pages 911-913.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11355.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Opium Wars, Opium Legalization, and Opium Consumption in China (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11355

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11355

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().