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Substance Abuse during the Pandemic: Implications for Labor-Force Participation

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy Greenwood
  • Nezih Guner
  • Karen A. Kopecky

Abstract

The labor-force participation rates of prime-age U.S. workers dropped in March 2020—the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—and have still not fully recovered. Could increased substance abuse during the pandemic be an important contributing factor? Substance-abuse deaths were elevated during the pandemic relative to trend indicating an increase in the number of substance abusers, and abusers of opioids and crystal methamphetamine have lower labor-force participation rates than non-abusers. A range of estimates of the number of additional substance abusers during the pandemic indicate that increased substance abuse can account for 9 to 30 percent of the decline in prime-age labor force participation between February 2020 and June 2021.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Karen A. Kopecky, 2022. "Substance Abuse during the Pandemic: Implications for Labor-Force Participation," Working Papers 1335, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:1335
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    Cited by:

    1. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Karen A. Kopecky, 2022. "The Downward Spiral," NBER Working Papers 29764, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Francesco Chiocchio & Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Karen Kopecky, 2025. "Opioids and Post-COVID Labor-Force Participation," NBER Working Papers 33717, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Mary A. Burke & Katherine Grace Carman & Riley Sullivan & Hefei Wen & James Frank Wharam & Hao Yu, 2022. "Employment Trajectories among Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder: Can Evidence-Based Treatment Improve Outcomes?," Working Papers 22-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    4. Leung, Charles Ka Yui, 2022. "Housing and Macroeconomics," MPRA Paper 115500, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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