Substance Abuse and Workplace Fraud: Evidence from Physicians

Melanie Millar (), Roger White and Xin Zheng ()
Additional contact information
Melanie Millar: Baylor University
Xin Zheng: University of British Columbia

Journal of Business Ethics, 2023, vol. 183, issue 2, No 13, 585-602

Abstract: Abstract We examine the relation between worker substance abuse and workplace fraud in a sample of medical doctors. Relative to their peers, we observe that doctors engaging in substance abuse are between 50 and 100 times more likely to commit fraud in a given year. This result is consistent with research suggesting that substance abuse both creates financial pressures and impairs the functioning of cognitive self-regulatory mechanisms. Our results are robust in within-subject tests and between-subject tests, as well as in tests using instrumental variables that exploit exogenous variation in the state-level availability of opioids, a commonly abused substance.

Keywords: Substance abuse; Fraud; Impulsivity; Delay discounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G40 K42 M12 M41 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05065-6

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