PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mukherjee, Anita
AU  - Sacks, Daniel W.
AU  - Yoo, Hoyoung
TI  - The Effects of the Opioid Crisis on Employment
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.1121-12018R2
DP  - 2023 Apr 06
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1121-12018R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/04/03/jhr.1121-12018R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/04/03/jhr.1121-12018R2.full
AB  - We show that the opioid crisis slows transitions to employment from unemployment and non-participation. We identify the effect of the opioid crisis from cross-state variation in triplicate prescribing regulations, which produced long-lasting reductions in opioid use by reducing the initial distribution of the blockbuster opioid OxyContin. Difference-in-differences estimates show that triplicate regulations induce unemployed and non-participating workers in triplicate states to return to employment about 10 percent faster than workers in non-triplicate states. These estimates imply a 1.1 percentage point higher level of employment in steady state.