Loss of Life and Labor Productivity: The Canadian Opioid Crisis

Alexander Cheung (), Joseph Marchand and Patricia Mark ()
Additional contact information
Alexander Cheung: University of Alberta, Department of Economics, Postal: 8-14 HM Tory Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H4
Patricia Mark: Vancouver Island Health Authority

No 2020-13, Working Papers from University of Alberta, Department of Economics

Abstract: Opioids were declared a public health emergency in British Columbia, Canada, in 2016, and from that year through 2021, 29,894 Canadians lost their lives to opioid overdoses. With more than two-thirds of those victims were employed in the five years prior to their deaths from opioids, this study aims to quantify their lost productivity to the Canadian economy, focusing on the pre-COVID period from 2016 to 2019. We apply two human capital model variants in our analysis, projecting forward the future economic output of individuals who died from opioids, based on industry when employed and age at time of death, from their deaths to what would have been their eventual retirements. The total estimated productivity loss to Canada is at least 8.8 billion dollars, with the equivalent value of statistical life calculations an order of magnitude higher, which are instead based on estimates of the amount of money that individuals would pay to avoid death. Our results challenge the notion that the opioid crisis predominantly affects unproductive members of society.

Keywords: British Columbia; Canada; human capital; labor productivity; opioids; public health emergency; value of statistical life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 I10 J17 J24 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2020-08-27, Revised 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-hea, nep-lma and nep-mac
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Related works:
Journal Article: Loss of Life and Labor Productivity: The Canadian Opioid Crisis (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:albaec:2020_013

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