Citation

Evans WN, Garthwaite C, Moore TJ. J. Public Econ. 2022; 206.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104581

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The violence associated with crack cocaine markets in the 1980s and 1990s has repercussions today. Using cross-city variation in when crack cocaine arrived and an older comparison group, we estimate that the US murder rate of black males aged 15-24 was still 70 percent higher 17 years after crack markets had emerged. Using the fraction of gun-related suicides as a proxy for gun availability, we find that increased access to guns led to persistently higher murder rates. Our estimates imply that more guns due to crack-related violence explains approximately one-tenth of the current life-expectancy gap between white and black males. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Homicide; Life expectancy; Guns; Murder; Crack cocaine; Black males; Drug epidemics