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| Title: | | West-East Convergence in the Prevalence of Illicit Drugs: Socioeconomics or Culture?  |
| Authors: | | Tauchmann, Harald |
| Issue Date: | | 2008 |
| Series/Report no.: | | Economics Discussion Papers / Institut für Weltwirtschaft 2008-8 |
| Abstract: | | In contrast to West-Germany, illicit drugs were virtually absent in the East-Germany until 1990. Yet, after the collapse of the former GDR, East-Germany was expected to encounter a sharp increase in the prevalence of substance abuse. By analyzing individual data, we find that East-Germany largely caught up with West-Germany?s ever-growing prevalence of illicit drugs within a single decade. We decompose the west-east difference in prevalence rates into an explained and an unexplained part using a modified Blinder-Oaxaca procedure. This decomposition suggests that the observed convergence is just weakly related to socioeconomic characteristics and therefore remains mainly unexplained. That is, West- and East-Germans seem to have become more alike per se. We conclude that both parts of the country have converged in terms of the culture of drug consumption. |
| Subjects: | | illicit drugs west-east convergence decomposition |
| JEL: | | I12 P23 P36 |
| Creative Commons License: | |  |
| Document Type: | | Working Paper |
| Appears in Collections: | | Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal - Discussion Papers
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