Fighting Abuse with Prescription Tracking: Mandatory Drug Monitoring and Intimate Partner Violence

Dhaval Dave, Bilge Erten, David W. Hummel, Pinar Keskin () and Shuo Zhang

No 32563, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The opioid crisis generates broader societal harms beyond direct health and economic effects, impacting non-users through adverse spillovers on children, families, and communities. We study the spillover effects of a supply-side policy aimed at reducing the over-prescribing of opioids on women’s wellbeing by examining its effects on intimate partner violence (IPV). Using administrative data on incidents reported to law enforcement, in conjunction with quasi-experimental variation in the adoption of stringent mandatory access prescription drug monitoring programs, we find that these policies have generated a downstream benefit for women by significantly reducing their overall exposure to IPV and IPV-involved injuries by 9 to 10 percent. Strongest effects are experienced by groups with higher rates of opioid consumption at baseline, including non-Hispanic Whites. However, we also find a significant uptick in heroin-involved IPV incidents, suggesting substitution into illicit drug consumption. Our results highlight the need to identify high-risk groups prone to switching to illicit opioids and to address this risk through evidence-based policies. Accounting for effects on IPV adds to the estimated societal burden of the opioid epidemic.

JEL-codes: H0 I12 I18 J12 J16 K0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-law
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