Hidden Costs of Ban the Box Laws: Unraveling the Effects on Drug‐Related Deaths

Oleksandra Cheipesh

Health Economics, 2025, vol. 34, issue 11, 2059-2071

Abstract: Ban the Box (BTB) laws delay criminal background checks until the later stages of the hiring process. This study provides new evidence that BTB laws that apply to both private and public employers have negative spillover effects beyond labor market outcomes. Drawing on data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), I investigate the impact of BTB laws on drug‐related mortality. Two years after adoption, BTB laws are associated with more than a 35 percent increase in drug‐related mortality among Black and Hispanic men. The main mechanism appears to be diminished labor opportunities. BTB adoption reduces wages and the probability of employment among Black and Hispanic men.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.70018

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:hlthec:v:34:y:2025:i:11:p:2059-2071

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().