[情報] Applying econ lens to cannabis laws
Applying an economic lens to cannabis laws
Dr Luke Chu’s research brings an economic perspective to the impact of
cannabis laws.
https://reurl.cc/q8Nb1p
It was by chance that Dr Luke Chu, a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the
Wellington School of Business and Government, began researching the impact of
cannabis laws. In 2010, Luke was struggling to settle on a topic for his PhD
at Michigan State University when inspiration struck.
“I was really struggling to find a PhD dissertation topic and then one day
there was a Time Magazine laying on my desk with a big marijuana leaf on the
cover,” says Luke. “I did a Google Scholar search and realised that there
had been many laws passed, but there hadn’t really been any evidence-based
research on the topic. So, I thought, okay I’m going to do that.”
Luke has since published several papers on the impacts of medical marijuana
laws in the United States, where many states have passed laws legalising it’
s use. One of these papers, Joint Culpability: The Effects of Medical
Marijuana Laws on Crime, co-written with Wilbur Townsend, provides evidence
against one of the major concerns of legalising cannabis—that it will lead
to an increase in crime.
“There’s concern regarding violent crime and that if people need money to
purchase cannabis, they might commit robbery,” says Luke. “On the other
hand, in Economics we have this theory saying if you legalise something it
should reduce crime.
“Using a modern econometric technique called synthetic control we estimated
the effects on crime for each city. Overall, we found there was no increase
or decrease in crime. There seems to be very little correlation between crime
and those legalisations. In general, I think this is good news for lawmakers,
as they likely don’t need to worry about an increase in crime from laws
legalising or regulating cannabis use,” says Luke.
Another paper on medical marijuana laws that Luke co-wrote, along with
Associate Professor Seth Gershenson from American University, High times: The
effect of medical marijuana laws on student time use, looked at the impact of
cannabis use on how university students spent their time.
“We know there’s the image of college students smoking cannabis and there’
s some medical research concerned that smoking too much cannabis will affect
a user’s cognitive ability,” says Luke. “So, for this study we used diary
data from the American Time Use survey to see what students who used
cannabis, and those who did not, did over a 24-hour period.
“We actually found a relatively large impact. Students who used cannabis
spent more time watching television and less time doing homework or attending
lectures. But most of the difference is during the summer or during the
weekends. “
With governments around the world reviewing legislation around the use of
cannabis, New Zealand included, Luke believes it’s crucial that there is
good empirical evidence to guide policy decisions.
“Evidence is there and it’s important for the policy makers, and the
general public, to consider this when they think about whether to vote yes or
vote no,” says Luke.
Another piece of research that Luke is currently working on, together with Dr
Harold Cuffe, could also have an impact on policy in New Zealand—the
education and labour market outcomes of students who take out student loans.
The research, which is being funded by a Marsden Fund grant, looks at the
effects of student loans, given out as part of the New Zealand Student Loan
Scheme, on underperforming students and their labour market outcomes.
“In New Zealand there’s this interesting setting that if you don’t pass
fifty percent of your courses you don’t get a loan. In our research, using a
modern econometric technique called regression discontinuity, we’re looking
at whether those students who are just above fifty percent, so continue to
get their student loan, complete their studies and whether they’re doing
better in the labour market, compared to students who are just below fifty
percent and lose their loans” says Luke.
The research has revealed that most of these students still complete their
degrees, but the impact on labour market outcomes is a bit unclear.
“Students who complete their degree do earn more but that might just be
because of the signalling effect of having a bachelor’s degree,” says Luke.
The research has also revealed the concern about these underperforming
students getting trapped into debt is unfounded.
“We’ve found that the difference in the student loan debt between students
who retain their loans and those who lose loan access is quite small. While
these students still accumulate more student loan debt, it disappears pretty
rapidly after six to seven years. So overall it means the policy works out
pretty well,” says Luke.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 1.174.224.87 (臺灣)
※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/B90303XXX/M.1599837594.A.F8C.html
※ 編輯: yuzu (1.174.224.87 臺灣), 09/11/2020 23:21:01