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The War on Illegal Drugs in Producer and Consumer Countries: A Simple Analytical Framework

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  • Daniel Mejía

Abstract

This paper develops a model of the war against illegal drugs in both producer and consumer countries. The paper studies the trade-off faced by the government of the drug consumer country between prevention policies (aimed at reducing the demand for drugs) and enforcement policies (aimed at reducing the production and trafficking of drugs), and shows how the optimal allocation of resources between these two alternatives depends on the key parameters of the model. We use available data for the war on drugs in Colombia, and against consumption in the U.S., to calibrate the unobservable parameters of the model, such as the price elasticity of demand for cocaine; the effectiveness of prevention and treatment policies; and the relative effectiveness of interdiction efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Mejía, 2008. "The War on Illegal Drugs in Producer and Consumer Countries: A Simple Analytical Framework," CESifo Working Paper Series 2459, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2459
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hirshleifer,Jack, 2001. "The Dark Side of the Force," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521009171.
    2. Hirshleifer, Jack, 1991. "The Technology of Conflict as an Economic Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 130-134, May.
    3. Herschel Grossman & Daniel Mejía, 2008. "The war against drug producers," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 5-23, January.
    4. Daniel Mejía & Carlos E. Posada, 2007. "Cocaine Production and Trafficking: What do we know?," Borradores de Economia 3955, Banco de la Republica.
    5. C. Peter Rydell & Jonathan P. Caulkins & Susan S. Everingham, 1996. "Enforcement or Treatment? Modeling the Relative Efficacy of Alternatives for Controlling Cocaine," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 687-695, October.
    6. Stergios Skaperdas, 1996. "Contest success functions (*)," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 7(2), pages 283-290.
    7. Daniel Mejía & Pascual Restrepo, 2008. "The War on Illegal Drug Production and Trafficking: An Economic Evaluation of Plan Colombia," Documentos CEDE 5123, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    8. Daniel Mejía & Pascual Restrepo, 2008. "The War on Illegal Drug Production and Trafficking: An Economic Evaluation of Plan Colombia," Documentos CEDE 005123, Universidad de los Andes - CEDE.
    9. Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy & Michael Grossman, 2006. "The Market for Illegal Goods: The Case of Drugs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(1), pages 38-60, February.
    10. Cláudia Costa Storti & Paul De Grauwe, 2007. "Globalization and the Price Decline of Illicit Drugs," CESifo Working Paper Series 1990, CESifo.
    11. Jonathan P. Caulkins, 1993. "Local Drug Markets' Response to Focused Police Enforcement," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 41(5), pages 848-863, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mounu Prem & Juan F. Vargas & Daniel Mejía, 2023. "The Rise and Persistence of Illegal Crops: Evidence from a Naive Policy Announcement," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(2), pages 344-358, March.
    2. Lenin Arango Castillo, 2011. "Tráfico de drogas, políticas de disuasión y violencia en México," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 26(2), pages 157-185.
    3. Daniel Mejía & Pascual Restrepo, 2008. "The War on Illegal Drug Production and Trafficking: An Economic Evaluation of Plan Colombia," Documentos CEDE 005123, Universidad de los Andes - CEDE.
    4. L. Leoncini & F. Rentocchini, 2010. "Counteracting cocaine production. An analysis based on a novel dataset," Working Papers 693, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    5. Mejia, Daniel & Restrepo, Pascual, 2016. "The economics of the war on illegal drug production and trafficking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 255-275.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    war on drugs; conflict; enforcement; prevention and treatment policies; Plan Colombia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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