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

Simone Balestra, Helge Liebert, Nicole Maestas and Tisamarie B. Sherry

No 29596, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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.

JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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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 (2022)
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