Breaking Bad in Bourbon Country: Does Alcohol Prohibition Encourage Methamphetamine Production?

Fernandez, Jose and Gohmann, Stephan and Pinkston, Joshua (2015): Breaking Bad in Bourbon Country: Does Alcohol Prohibition Encourage Methamphetamine Production?

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of local alcohol prohibition on the prevalence of methamphetamine labs. Using multiple sources of data for counties in Kentucky, we compare various measures of meth manufacturing in wet, moist, and dry counties. Our preferred estimates address the endogeneity of local alcohol policies by exploiting differences in counties’ religious compositions between the 1930s, when most local-option votes took place, and recent years. Even controlling for current religious affiliations, religious composition following the end of national Prohibition strongly predicts current alcohol restrictions. We carefully examine the validity of our identifying assumptions, and consider identification under alternative assumptions. Our results suggest that the number of meth lab seizures in Kentucky would decrease by 34.5 percent if all counties became wet.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Alcohol prohibition, methamphetamine production, dry counties
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health; K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K32 - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law; K - Law and Economics > K4 - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior > K42 - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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