Unemployment insurance and opioid prescriptions during the great recession

2024/04/02 by Xiaohui Guo, Lizhong Peng · 1 voice
Health Professions · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Global Health Care Issues #Healthcare Policy and Management

paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/soej.12688

openalex publication_date 2024/04/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Abstract This is the first U.S. study on the causal relationship between unemployment insurance (UI) expansions during the Great Recession and the use of prescribed opioids. Using annual county‐level prescription data from 2006 to 2013 and plausibly exogenous variation in state and federal policies, we estimate that a one standard deviation increase in UI generosity (10,800) reduces per‐capita prescription opioid use by 1.9%. We supplement our main analysis with a border discontinuity design and find a similar effect. We also find no evidence of pre‐trends in the outcome. Finally, additional analyses suggest that increased health care utilization after exposure to higher UI generosity could be a plausible explanation for the declines in opioid prescriptions.

Citations

• Does Reducing Unemployment Benefits during a Recession Reduce Youth Unemployment?
• Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing
• Prescription Opioids and Labor Market Pains
• The Contemporary American Drug Overdose Epidemic in International Perspective
• With a Little Help from My Friends: The Effects of Good Samaritan and Naloxone Access Laws on Opioid-Related Deaths
• A general formula for the optimal level of social insurance
• Potential Unemployment Insurance Duration and Labor Supply: The Individual and Market-Level Response to a Benefit Cut

Discussions

• "Unemployment insurance and opioid prescriptions during the great recession," by Xiaohui Guo of Capital University of Economics and Business and Lizhong Peng of @uwestga.bsky.social. #GreatRecession [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]