IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econom/v88y2021i349p208-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Breaking the Crystal Methamphetamine Economy: Illegal Drugs, Supply‐side Interventions and Crime Responses

Author

Listed:
  • Rocco d'Este

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effects on crime of supply‐side interventions that restricted access to pseudoephedrine‐based medications in the USA, drastically reducing the domestic production of methamphetamine. I find that these government interventions increased property and violent crime by around 3–4%, with criminogenic effects lasting for up to 7 months. Stronger evidence is detected in counties where laboratories producing methamphetamine were previously in operation. My findings suggest that policy interventions that have a limited effect on supply and no impact on the demand for drugs could open up the way to unwarranted crime responses. Timely policy implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Rocco d'Este, 2021. "Breaking the Crystal Methamphetamine Economy: Illegal Drugs, Supply‐side Interventions and Crime Responses," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 208-233, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:88:y:2021:i:349:p:208-233
    DOI: 10.1111/ecca.12351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12351
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecca.12351?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Adriana D. Kugler, 2008. "Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 191-215, May.
    2. Abby Alpert & David Powell & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, 2018. "Supply-Side Drug Policy in the Presence of Substitutes: Evidence from the Introduction of Abuse-Deterrent Opioids," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1-35, November.
    3. Roland G. Fryer Jr. & Paul S. Heaton & Steven D. Levitt & Kevin M. Murphy, 2013. "Measuring Crack Cocaine And Its Impact," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(3), pages 1651-1681, July.
    4. repec:oup:ecpoli:v:26:y:2011:i:67:p:347-385 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Carlos Dobkin & Nancy Nicosia, 2009. "The War on Drugs: Methamphetamine, Public Health, and Crime," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 324-349, March.
    6. Jérôme Adda & Brendon McConnell & Imran Rasul, 2014. "Crime and the Depenalization of Cannabis Possession: Evidence from a Policing Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(5), pages 1130-1202.
    7. Paolo Buonanno & Francesco Drago & Roberto Galbiati & Giulio Zanella, 2011. "Crime in Europe and the United States: dissecting the ‘reversal of misfortunes’ [Protective or counter-productive? Labour market institutions and the effect of immigration on EU natives]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 26(67), pages 347-385.
    8. Gary Solon & Steven J. Haider & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "What Are We Weighting For?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 301-316.
    9. Adda, Jérôme & McConnell, Brendon & Rasul, Imran, 2014. "Crime and the depenalization of cannabis possession: evidence," Economics Working Papers ECO2014/05, European University Institute.
    10. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    11. Dobkin, Carlos & Nicosia, Nancy & Weinberg, Matthew, 2014. "Are supply-side drug control efforts effective? Evaluating OTC regulations targeting methamphetamine precursors," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 48-61.
    12. Melissa Dell, 2015. "Trafficking Networks and the Mexican Drug War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(6), pages 1738-1779, June.
    13. Evelina Gavrilova & Takuma Kamada & Floris Zoutman, 2019. "Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organisations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 375-407.
    14. Jeff Grogger & Michael Willis, 2000. "The Emergence Of Crack Cocaine And The Rise In Urban Crime Rates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(4), pages 519-529, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. d'Este, Rocco, 2022. "Scientific Advancements in Illegal Drugs Production and Institutional Responses: New Psychoactive Substances, Self-Harm, and Violence inside Prisons," IZA Discussion Papers 15248, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Luis Aguiar & Jörg Claussen & Christian Peukert, 2018. "Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 656-678, September.
    3. Hansen, Benjamin & Miller, Keaton & Weber, Caroline, 2020. "Federalism, partial prohibition, and cross-border sales: Evidence from recreational marijuana," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    4. Zambiasi, Diego, 2022. "Drugs on the Web, Crime in the Streets. The Impact of Shutdowns of Dark Net Marketplaces on Street Crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 274-306.
    5. d'Este, Rocco & Harvey, Alex, 2020. "Universal Credit and Crime," IZA Discussion Papers 13484, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Lindo, Jason M. & Padilla-Romo, María, 2018. "Kingpin approaches to fighting crime and community violence: Evidence from Mexico's drug war," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 253-268.
    7. Matthias Parey & Imran Rasul, 2021. "Measuring the Market Size for Cannabis: A New Approach Using Forensic Economics," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(350), pages 297-338, April.
    8. Bondurant, Samuel R. & Lindo, Jason M. & Swensen, Isaac D., 2018. "Substance abuse treatment centers and local crime," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 124-133.
    9. Leong, Kaiwen & Li, Huailu & Xu, Haibo, 2019. "Effect of Enforcement Shock on Pushers' Activities: Evidence from an Asian Drug-Selling Gang," IZA Discussion Papers 12083, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Chu, Yu-Wei Luke & Townsend, Wilbur, 2019. "Joint culpability: The effects of medical marijuana laws on crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 502-525.
    11. Deiana Claudio & Giua Ludovica, 2021. "The Intended and Unintended Effects of Opioid Policies on Prescription Opioids and Crime," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 751-792, April.
    12. Dhaval Dave & Monica Deza & Brady Horn, 2021. "Prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid abuse, and crime," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(3), pages 808-848, January.
    13. Carrieri, Vincenzo & Madio, Leonardo & Principe, Francesco, 2019. "Light cannabis and organized crime: Evidence from (unintended) liberalization in Italy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 63-76.
    14. Jörg Kalbfuß & Reto Odermatt & Alois Stutzer, 2018. "Medical marijuana laws and mental health in the United States," CEP Discussion Papers dp1546, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    15. Brett Hollenbeck & Kosuke Uetake, 2021. "Taxation and market power in the legal marijuana industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 559-595, September.
    16. Simone Balestra & Helge Liebert & Nicole Maestas & Tisamarie B. Sherry, 2021. "Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 29596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Manolis Galenianos & Alessandro Gavazza, 2017. "A Structural Model of the Retail Market for Illicit Drugs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(3), pages 858-896, March.
    18. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Mesnard, Alice & Perrault, Tiffanie, 2023. "Weeding out the dealers? The economics of cannabis legalization," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 62-101.
    19. Freylejer, Leandro & Orr, Scott, 2023. "Import substitution in illicit methamphetamine markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. John J. Donohue & Abhay Aneja & Kyle D. Weber, 2019. "Right‐to‐Carry Laws and Violent Crime: A Comprehensive Assessment Using Panel Data and a State‐Level Synthetic Control Analysis," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 198-247, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:88:y:2021:i:349:p:208-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.