【Micro/Empirical Seminar】Externalities of Marijuana Legalization: Marijuana Use in Non-Legalizing States
2025/12/17
研討會日期 : 2025-12-17
時間 : 14:30
主講人 : Professor Elaine M. Liu
地點 : Conference Room B110
主持人 : Professor Bei Qin
演講者簡介 : Professor Elaine Liu received her Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 2008. She is currently a Professor at Georgia State University. Her research interests are Health Economics, Development Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Labor Economics.
演講摘要 : We study the impact of social media on marijuana use. Leveraging the Facebook Social Connectedness Index, which measures the strength of connectedness between geographic areas based on Facebook friendship ties, we explore the impact of connections to states where recreational marijuana use is legalized on marijuana use and workplace drug testing positivity rates in areas where marijuana remains illegal. The findings reveal that areas which are more connected to legalized states exhibit higher rates of marijuana use and workplace drug testing positivity even after controlling for geographic proximity to the legalized states. The results suggest that even connections beyond closed proximity can play a significant role in shaping individuals' behaviors. Our findings of the externality of legalization in one state to other more connected out-of-state areas imply that studies that estimate the impact of legalization using a standard difference-in-differences approach without taking into account the network underestimate the direct effect on the state that legalizes.
