West-East Convergence in the Prevalence of Illicit Drugs: Socioeconomics or Culture?

Harald Tauchmann

No 2008-8, Economics Discussion Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel)

Abstract: In contrast to West-Germany, illicit drugs were virtually absent in the East-Germany until 1990. Yet, after the collapse of the former GDR, East-Germany was expected to encounter a sharp increase in the prevalence of substance abuse. By analyzing individual data, we find that East-Germany largely caught up with West-Germany?s ever-growing prevalence of illicit drugs within a single decade. We decompose the west-east difference in prevalence rates into an explained and an unexplained part using a modified Blinder-Oaxaca procedure. This decomposition suggests that the observed convergence is just weakly related to socioeconomic characteristics and therefore remains mainly unexplained. That is, West- and East-Germans seem to have become more alike per se. We conclude that both parts of the country have converged in terms of the culture of drug consumption.

Keywords: illicit drugs; west-east convergence; decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 P23 P36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-soc
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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/17980/1/dp2008-8.pdf (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:7129

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