Tackling the Substance Abuse Crisis: The Role of Access to Treatment Facilities

Adriana Corredor-Waldron and Janet Currie

No 28862, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The continuing drug overdose crisis in the U.S. has highlighted the urgent need for greater access to treatment. This paper examines the impact of openings and closings of substance abuse treatment facilities in New Jersey on emergency room visits for substance abuse issues among nearby residents. We find that drug-related ER visits increase by 16.6% after a facility closure and decrease by 9.5% after an opening. The effects are largest in relatively under-served areas, among Black residents, and among males. They are smaller for the middle aged than for either younger or older people. The results suggest that expanding access to treatment results in significant reductions in morbidity related to drug abuse.

JEL-codes: I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: CH EH
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w28862.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Tackling the Substance Abuse Crisis: The Role of Access to Treatment Facilities (2021)
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:nbr:nberwo:28862

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w28862

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().