Wage and Employment Growth in America's Drug Epidemic: Is All Growth Created Equal?

Betz, Michael R.; Jones, Lauren E.

doi:10.1093/ajae/aay069

Cited by 34 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…A number of locational factors are also explored. Natural amenities have been found to either help or hinder economic development (Pender et al ), which may indirectly affect opioid overdose fatalities as documented in the literature (Betz and Jones ). Using data from USDA's Economic Research Service, amenities include topographic variation and water area ( z ‐scores).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An emerging body of research has begun to examine the relationship between drug mortality and employment in specific economic sectors. Betz and Jones () find that both job and wage declines in lower skilled industries are associated with higher opioid overdose mortality rates, especially for rural white men in goods‐producing sectors, but also for African Americans and women who work in the service sector. They also find that wage growth is an important protective factor, which suggests job quality (e.g.…”

Section: Previous Research and Conceptual Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Opioid Hydra: Understanding Overdose Mortality Epidemics and Syndemics Across the Rural‐Urban Continuum

et al. 2019

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The rapid increase of fatal opioid overdoses over the past two decades is a major U.S. public health problem, especially in non‐metropolitan communities. The crisis has transitioned from pharmaceuticals to illicit synthetic opioids and street mixtures, especially in urban areas. Using latent profile analysis, we classify n = 3,079 counties into distinct classes using CDC fatal overdose rates for specific opioids in 2002–2004, 2008–2012, and 2014–2016. We identify three distinct epidemics (prescription opioids, heroin, and prescription‐synthetic opioid mixtures) and one syndemic involving all opioids. We find that prescription‐related epidemic counties, whether rural or urban, have been “left behind” the rest of the nation. These communities are less populated and more remote, older and mostly white, have a history of drug abuse, and are former farm and factory communities that have been in decline since the 1990s. Overdoses in these places exemplify the “deaths of despair” narrative. By contrast, heroin and opioid syndemic counties tend to be more urban, connected to interstates, ethnically diverse, and in general more economically secure. The urban opioid crisis follows the path of previous drug epidemics, affecting a disadvantaged subpopulation that has been left behind rather than the entire community. County data on opioid epidemic class membership are provided.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Research and Conceptual Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Opioid Hydra: Understanding Overdose Mortality Epidemics and Syndemics Across the Rural‐Urban Continuum

et al. 2019

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“…insignificant. 15 Similarly, to account for susceptibility of a county to differing global and commodity market trends, we control for the deep-lagged 1990/2000 employment shares of agriculture, and mining (these two variables are not reported for brevity). Farm and mining communities are exposed to commodity boom/bust cycles, labour-saving technological change, and technological innovations such as hydraulic fracturing.…”

Section: Cross-section "Level" Equations For 2010-2015mentioning

confidence: 99%

Local ability to rewire and socioeconomic performance

Partridge¹,

Tsvetkova²

2020

OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Working Papers

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The paper examines the effects of three groups of factors (county economic structure, social/demographic attributes and geography) on employment growth and poverty change in US counties before and after the Great Recession. It finds that the industrial structure that facilitates inter-industry employee flows ("rewiring") is of increasing importance post-Recession. In particular, this measure is associated with employment growth in underperforming counties suggesting that removing barriers to the flow of resources within lagging economies and increasing their adaptability potential might be a viable policy option.

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“…Prior studies have proposed that long-term changes in economic conditions, including the deterioration of employment opportunities in U.S. labor markets and the rise of economic insecurity for families, may be associated with the rise of substance use disorders and drug overdose mortality rates more generally (Betz and Jones 2018;Case and Deaton 2017;Ghertner and Groves 2018;Hederos et al 2017;Nosrati et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economic Underpinnings of the Drug Epidemic

Seltzer¹

2019

Preprint

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U.S. labor markets have experienced transformative change over the past half century. Spurred on by global economic change, robotization, and the decline of labor unions, state labor markets have shifted away from an occupational regime dominated by the production of goods to one characterized by the provision of services. Prior studies have proposed that deterioration of employment opportunities may be associated with the rise of substance use disorders and drug overdose deaths, yet no clear link between changes in labor market dynamics in the U.S. manufacturing sector and drug overdose deaths has been established. Using restricted-use vital registration records between 1999-2017 that comprise over 700,000 drug deaths, I test two questions. First, what is the association between manufacturing decline and drug and opioid overdose mortality rates? Second, how much of the increase in these drug-related outcomes can be accounted for by manufacturing decline? The findings provide strong evidence that restructuring of the U.S. labor market has played an important upstream role in the current drug crisis. Up to 77,000 overdose deaths for men and up to 40,000 overdose deaths for women are attributable to the decline of state-level manufacturing over this nearly two-decade period. These results persist in models that adjust for other social, economic, and policy trends changing at the same time, including the supply of prescription opioids. Critically, the findings signal the value of policy interventions that aim to reduce persistent economic precarity experienced by individuals and communities, especially the economic strain placed upon the middle class.

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Wage and Employment Growth in America's Drug Epidemic: Is All Growth Created Equal?

Cited by 34 publications

References 41 publications

The Opioid Hydra: Understanding Overdose Mortality Epidemics and Syndemics Across the Rural‐Urban Continuum

The Opioid Hydra: Understanding Overdose Mortality Epidemics and Syndemics Across the Rural‐Urban Continuum

Local ability to rewire and socioeconomic performance

The Economic Underpinnings of the Drug Epidemic

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