The munchies: Marijuana legalization and food sales in Washington

Timothy R. Hodge and Cooper Hazel

Southern Economic Journal, 2022, vol. 89, issue 1, 112-137

Abstract: This paper uses the differential timing and varying degree of recreational marijuana access across Washington counties to estimate the relationship between recreational marijuana sales and food sales. Using panel event study design methods over a period that covers the emergence of Washington's retail marijuana industry, we find a statistically significant increase in taxable food sales without evidence of an increase in or substitution away from other food categories. Specifically, the introduction of recreational marijuana sales increases per capita taxable food sales by 5% to 6% and a 1% increase in marijuana sales increases per capita taxable food sales by 0.018%. These findings imply there may be additional tax revenue and health costs that need to be included in the recreational marijuana debate.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12588

Related works:
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:wly:soecon:v:89:y:2022:i:1:p:112-137

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Southern Economic Journal from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().