Citation

Maguire K, Miranda AS, Winters JV. Appl. Econ. Lett. 2019; 26(18): 1480-1484.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13504851.2019.1581904

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The effects of the American opioid crisis have been widespread, leading to increases in addictions, poor health outcomes, and death. We expect that these effects may vary across the workforce, in particular, that blue-collar employment, which generally requires more physically demanding labour, may be associated with a higher use of pain medication including opioids. This paper analyses the relationship between the share of blue-collar employment and the number of opioid prescriptions from 2014 to 2016 for the Appalachian region as compared to the contiguous US We find that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship in the Appalachian region.

Language: en

Keywords

Appalachian region; employment; I3; J20; J21; labor market; Opioid prescriptions