Three essays about substance use and addiction in economics

Abstract

This dissertation includes three papers on substance use and addiction in economics. Chapter 1 explains the different theories of addiction within economics with a particular emphasis on the rational addiction model. Once these theories are defined I present a historical overview of the different theories of addiction. Classical economists such as Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and others are incorporated into the paper as a critique to the rational addiction model. After the historical analysis Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 present a quantitative analysis about how community level events impact substance use. Chapter 2 models the impact of community level violence using the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT) to examine how an exogenous measure, kingpin captures, impacts cigarette use. The results indicate that, in the short run, the number of current smokers increases for adults in areas of high levels of increased violence and that the consumption of cigarettes among current smokers increases for adolescents when violence increases in their municipalities or federal entities. Chapter 3 models the impact of the 2016 election on individuals based on their race, ethnicity, and gender by using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance system data set and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. There results indicate that there has been an increase in cigarette use for Hispanic individuals after the 2016 election. Each chapter uses an interdisciplinary approach and incorporates literature and theories outside of economics to better understand the research question. Each chapter also expands on ways in which substance use can be studied within economics.