title: The effects of cocaine and heroin price on drug-related emergency department visits.
abstract: This paper estimates the empirical relationship between cocaine and heroin prices and drug-related hospital ED admissions for 21 U.S. cities. These outcomes bypass some of the problems with self-reports and directly measure a component of healthcare costs associated with heavy drug usage. The price elasticity of the probability of a cocaine and heroin episode is estimated at -0.27 and -0.10, respectively. A 10% increase in prices can prevent 10,723 cocaine and heroin-related ED visits, with cost savings between 21 million dollars and 47 million dollars. These low magnitudes of the drug outcome-price response have implications for the cost-effectiveness of enforcement-driven price increases.
authors.affiliation: Bentley University and National Bureau of Economic Research, Department of Economics, Waltham, MA 02452, USA. ddave@bentley.edu
authors.forename: Dhaval
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dave
mesh_terms: D003042:Cocaine / Q000191:economics*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003932:Heroin / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D003932:Heroin; D003042:Cocaine