Prescription opioids and economic hardship in France

Ilaria Natali (), Mathias Dewatripont, Victor Ginsburgh, Michel Goldman and Patrick Legros
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Ilaria Natali: Université Libre de Bruxelles
Mathias Dewatripont: Université Libre de Bruxelles
Victor Ginsburgh: Université Libre de Bruxelles
Michel Goldman: Université Libre de Bruxelles

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2023, vol. 24, issue 9, No 6, 1473-1504

Abstract: Abstract This paper studies how opioid analgesic sales are empirically related to socioeconomic disparities in France, with a focus on poverty. This analysis is made possible using the OpenHealth database, which provides retail sales data for opioid analgesics available on the French market. We exploit firm-level data for each of the 94 departments in Metropolitan France between 2008 and 2017. We show that increases in the poverty rate are associated with increases in sales: a one percentage point increase in poverty is associated with approximately a 5% increase in mild opioid sales. Our analysis further shows that opioid sales are positively related to the share of middle-aged people and individuals with basic education only, while they are negatively related to population density. The granularity and longitudinal nature of these data allow us to control for a large pool of potential confounding factors. Our results suggest that additional interventions should be more intensively addressed toward the most deprived areas. We conclude that a combination of policies aimed at improving economic prospects and strictly monitoring access to opioid medications would be beneficial for reducing opioid-related harm.

Keywords: Prescription opioids; Socioeconomic conditions; France; Opioid crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I15 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Working Paper: Prescription Opioids and Economic Hardship in France (2020)
Working Paper: Prescription Opioids and Economic Hardship in France (2020)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10198-022-01557-4

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