IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v6y1997i5p521-524.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Letter: Economic modelling of the gateway effect

Author

Listed:
  • Rosalie Liccardo Pacula

Abstract

Although a significant number of empirical studies provide evidence of sequencing in drug use, economic theory remains focused on addiction to a single substance. This paper presents a general model of substance use that allows for the possibility of multi‐commodity habit formation and can be used to analyse the intertemporal relationship between the consumption of legal and illicit drugs, or the gateway effect. A simple two‐drug model is analysed and conditions for the existence of multi‐commodity habit formation are examined. It is found in the case of multi‐commodity habit formation that the marginal utility of initiating a new drug is higher when there is prior consumption of the other drug. Further, it is found that the individual will initiate drug consumption with that drug that has the lowest marginal cost. The particular sequencing of drug use that is observed in empirical data is explained by differences in the marginal cost of consuming legal and illegal drugs. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, 1997. "Letter: Economic modelling of the gateway effect," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(5), pages 521-524, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:6:y:1997:i:5:p:521-524
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1050(199709)6:5<521::AID-HEC301>3.0.CO;2-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1050(199709)6:53.0.CO;2-6
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1050(199709)6:5<521::AID-HEC301>3.0.CO;2-6?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. Kandel, D. & Yamaguchi, K., 1993. "From beer to crack: Developmental patterns of drug involvement," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 83(6), pages 851-855.
    2. John DiNardo & Thomas Lemieux, 1992. "Alcohol, Marijuana, and American Youth: The Unintended Effects of Government Regulation," NBER Working Papers 4212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. DiNardo, J. & Lemieux, T., 1992. "Appendix Table for: Alcohol, Marijuana and American Youth: The Unintented Consequences of Government Regulation," Papers 92-17, California Irvine - School of Social Sciences.
    4. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bretteville-Jensen Anne L & Melberg Hans O & Jones Andrew M, 2008. "Sequential Patterns of Drug Use Initiation - Can We Believe In the Gateway Theory?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-31, January.
    2. John Cawley & Davide Dragone & Stephanie Von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2016. "The Demand for Cigarettes as Derived from the Demand for Weight Loss: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 8-23, January.
    3. Kenneth Clements & Yihui Lan & Xueyan Zhao, 2010. "The demand for marijuana, tobacco and alcohol: inter-commodity interactions with uncertainty," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 203-239, August.
    4. Mikael Bask & Maria Melkersson, 2004. "Rationally addicted to drinking and smoking?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 373-381.
    5. Gabriel A. Picone & Frank Sloan & Justin G. Trogdon, 2004. "The effect of the tobacco settlement and smoking bans on alcohol consumption," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(10), pages 1063-1080, October.
    6. Benjamin Ukert, 2017. "The short- and long-run effects of smoking cessation on alcohol consumption," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 495-519, December.
    7. Almeida, Joanna & Johnson, Renee M. & Matsumoto, Atsushi & Godette, Dionne C., 2012. "Substance use, generation and time in the United States: The modifying role of gender for immigrant urban adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2069-2075.
    8. Jones, Andrew M., 1999. "Adjustment costs, withdrawal effects, and cigarette addiction," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 125-137, January.
    9. Pierpaolo Pierani & Silvia Tiezzi, 2009. "Addiction and interaction between alcohol and tobacco consumption," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 1-23, September.
    10. Ziggy MacDonald, 2004. "What Price Drug Use? The Contribution of Economics to an Evidence‐Based Drugs Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 113-152, April.

    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. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 2000. "Alcohol," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 30, pages 1629-1673, Elsevier.
    2. Marta Favara & Alan Sanchez, 2017. "Psychosocial competencies and risky behaviours in Peru," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-40, December.
    3. Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, 1998. "Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Consumption: Is There Really a Gateway Effect?," NBER Working Papers 6348, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Jeffrey DeSimone, 1999. "Illegal Drug Use and Labor Supply," Working Papers 9906, East Carolina University, Department of Economics.
    5. Frank J. Chaloupka & Michael Grossman & John A. Tauras, 1999. "The Demand for Cocaine and Marijuana by Youth," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 133-156, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 1999. "Alcohol," Working Papers 156, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    7. Anne Bretteville-Jensen, 2006. "Drug Demand – Initiation, Continuation and Quitting," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 491-516, December.
    8. Farrelly, Matthew C. & Bray, Jeremy W. & Zarkin, Gary A. & Wendling, Brett W., 2001. "The joint demand for cigarettes and marijuana: evidence from the National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 51-68, January.
    9. Naomi E. Feldman, 2005. "Choosing Between Charitable Activities," Working Papers 0516, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    10. Sen, Bisakha & Agarwal, Rajshree & Hofler, Richard, 2002. "Teenage Indulgence in Cigarettes, Alcohol and Marijuana: Evidence of a "Gateway" Effect," Working Papers 02-0103, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    11. Tetsuji Yamada & Michael Kendix & Tadashi Yamada, 1996. "The impact of alcohol consumption and marijuana use on high school graduation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(1), pages 77-92, January.
    12. Dhaval Dave, 2004. "Illicit Drug Use Among Arrestees and Drug Prices," NBER Working Papers 10648, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. J. Williams & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula & Frank J. Chaloupka & Henry Wechsler, 2004. "Alcohol and marijuana use among college students: economic complements or substitutes?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(9), pages 825-843, September.
    14. Fabrice Etilé, 2006. "Who does the hat fit? Teenager heterogeneity and the effectiveness of information policies in preventing cannabis use and heavy drinking," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(7), pages 697-718, July.
    15. Tetsuji Yamada & Michael Kendix & Tadashi Yamada, 1993. "The Impact of Alcohol Consumption and Marijuana Use on High School Graduation," NBER Working Papers 4497, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Henry Saffer & Frank J. Chaloupka, 1999. "Demographic Differentials in the Demand for Alcohol and Illicit Drugs," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 187-212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Robert L. Ohsfeldt & Raymond G. Boyle & Eli I. Capilouto, 1999. "Tobacco Taxes, Smoking Restrictions, and Tobacco Use," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Analysis of Substance Use and Abuse: An Integration of Econometric and Behavioral Economic Research, pages 15-30, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Grossman, Michael & Chaloupka, Frank J., 1998. "The demand for cocaine by young adults: a rational addiction approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 427-474, August.
    19. Ziggy MacDonald & Stephen Pudney, 2001. "Illicit drug use and labour market achievement: evidence from the UK," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(13), pages 1655-1668.
    20. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.

    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:wly:hlthec:v:6:y:1997:i:5:p:521-524. 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: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.