TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Greenwood, Jeremy
AU  - Guner, Nezih
AU  - Kopecky, Karen A.
        TI  - The Downward Spiral
        PY  - 2022/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 15574
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp15574
        AB  - There have been more than 500,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2000. To analyze the opioid epidemic, a model is constructed where individuals choose whether to use opioids recreationally, knowing the probabilities of addiction and dying. These odds are functions of recreational opioid usage. Markov chains are estimated from the US data for the college and non-college educated that summarize the transitions into and out of opioid addiction as well as to a deadly overdose. The structural model is constructed to match the estimated Markov chains. The epidemic's drivers and the impact of medical interventions are examined.
        KW  - addiction
KW  - college/non-college educated
KW  - deaths
KW  - fentanyl
KW  - Markov chain
KW  - medical interventions
KW  - opioids
KW  - OxyContin
KW  - pain
KW  - prices
KW  - state-contingent preferences
KW  - structural model
KW  - subjective and objective beliefs
        ER  -