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The Productivity of Outpatient Treatment for Substance Abuse

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  • Mingshan Lu
  • Thomas G. McGuire

Abstract

This paper studies the effectiveness of treatment for substance abuse with data on more than 10,000 treatment episodes from Maine. We measure effectiveness as the reduction in the rate of drug use between admission and discharge. In a nonexperimental setting we use instrumental variables to estimate the effect of treatment, measured as number of visits, in an ordered logit model framework. After controlling for selection bias, treatment appears to be effective for moderate and heavy drug users. The marginal productivity of treatment increases then decreases. We estimate a treatment "cutoff point" at which marginal productivity becomes zero for both moderate and heavy users.

Suggested Citation

  • Mingshan Lu & Thomas G. McGuire, 2002. "The Productivity of Outpatient Treatment for Substance Abuse," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(2), pages 309-335.
  • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:37:y:2002:i:2:p:309-335
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    Cited by:

    1. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Ioana Popovici & Elisheva Stern, 2015. "Health Insurance Expansions and Provider Behavior: Evidence from Substance Use Disorder Providers," DETU Working Papers 1510, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    2. Matilde Machado, 2005. "Substance abuse treatment, what do we know?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 6(1), pages 53-64, March.
    3. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Brendan Saloner, 2019. "The Effect of Public Insurance Expansions on Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 366-393, March.
    4. Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Tello-Trillo, Sebastian & Webber, Douglas, 2023. "Losing insurance and psychiatric hospitalizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 508-527.
    5. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Brady P. Horn & Jonathan H. Cantor, 2020. "Business Cycles And Admissions To Substance Abuse Treatment," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 139-154, January.
    6. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Brendan Saloner, 2018. "Substance Use Treatment Provider Behavior and Healthcare Reform: Evidence from Massachusetts," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 76-101, January.
    7. Daniel A. Ackerberg & Matilde P. Machado & Michael H. Riordan, 2001. "Measuring the Relative Performance of Providers of a Health Service," NBER Working Papers 8385, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Machado, Matilde P., 2003. "Substance abuse treatment: what do we know? an economist's perspective," UC3M Working papers. Economics we035621, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    9. Ashley C. Bradford & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2024. "Evictions and psychiatric treatment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 87-125, January.
    10. Beth A. Freeborn & Brian McManus, 2007. "Substance Abuse Treatment and Motor Vehicle Fatalities," Working Papers 66, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    11. Mark McInerney, 2018. "Opioid Use Disorder Treatment and Mortality: Evidence from Variation in Services Offered," Working papers 2018-21, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    12. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.
    13. Lien, Hsien-Ming & Albert Ma, Ching-To & McGuire, Thomas G., 2004. "Provider-client interactions and quantity of health care use," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1261-1283, November.
    14. Popovici, Ioana & Maclean, J. Catherine & French, Michael, 2017. "The Effects of Health Insurance Parity Laws for Substance Use Disorder Treatment on Traffic Fatalities: Evidence of Unintended Benefits," IZA Discussion Papers 10746, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Sarah Hamersma & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2018. "Insurance Expansions and Children’s Use of Substance Use Disorder Treatment," NBER Working Papers 24499, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Swensen, Isaac D., 2015. "Substance-abuse treatment and mortality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 13-30.
    17. Ioana Popovici & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Michael T. French, 2017. "Health Insurance and Traffic Fatalities: The Effects of Substance Use Disorder Parity Laws," NBER Working Papers 23388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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