Addiction, Compulsion, and the Technology of Consumption

Robert J Michaels

Economic Inquiry, 1988, vol. 26, issue 1, 75-88

Abstract: The consumption technology model of K. J. Lancaster and G. S. Becker is extended to include addictive activities. Assum ing a utility function in which the individual places a premium on ma intenance of self-esteem, the model generates empirically verified pa tterns of habituation, withdrawal, and the compulsive restarting of a n abandoned habit. It is then applied to the analysis of public polic ies toward drug abuse. Their frequent ineffectiveness is shown to res ult from an unwarranted emphasis on deterring the addictive activity rather than on encouraging acceptable behavior. Copyright 1988 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1988
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