Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic

Simone Balestra (), Helge Liebert, Nicole Maestas () and Tisamarie B. Sherry ()
Additional contact information
Simone Balestra: University of St. Gallen
Nicole Maestas: Harvard Medical School
Tisamarie B. Sherry: RAND

No 15221, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate behavioral responses to a staggered disruption in the supply of prescription opioids across U.S. states: the introduction of electronic Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). Using administrative datasets, we find PDMPs curtail the proliferation of prescription opioids. Physicians respond to monitoring on the extensive margin, limiting the number of patients to whom they prescribe opioids without adjusting dosage or duration. This decreases supply to long-term opioid users, who evade the restrictions by acquiring prescriptions from out-of-state prescribers and by substituting to heroin. This causes a surge in heroin overdoses, which offsets reductions in hospitalizations and deaths from prescription opioids.

Keywords: prescription drugs; opioid crisis; heroin; prescription drug monitoring programs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I11 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic (2022)
Working Paper: Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic (2021)
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