Preferences and attitudes to illicit drug policy held by individuals are likely to be an important influence in the development of illicit drug policy. Amongst the key factors impacting on an individuals preferences over substance use policy are their beliefs about the costs and benefits of drug...

Cannabis is the most popular illegal drug. Its legal status is typically justified on the grounds that cannabis use has harmful consequences. Empirically investigating this issue has been a fertile topic for research in recent times. We provide an overview of this literature, focusing on studies...

This paper estimates the price responsiveness of cannabis, alcohol and cigarette use. Individual level data from four waves of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey are merged with previously unavailable state level data on cannabis prices, and ABS alcohol and tobacco price indices. In...

We begin by putting the size of Australia's crime problem in an international perspective thorugh comparisons with England and the U.S. Having established the magnitude of crime in Australia, section 3, rovides a framework useful for understanding the 'tough on crime' policy approach. Section...

This research presents a dynamic model of crime in which agents anticipate future consequences of their actions. Current period decisions affect future outcomes by a process of capital accumulation. While investigating the role of human capital, the focus of our study is on a form of capital...

Recent research has highlighted the importance of interaction between individuals and their community in determining criminal and labor market choice, while standard models have focused on a human capital explanation. This research attempts to reconcile these two strands of literature by...

We study criminality in a dynamic context by introducing social capital into the economic theory of crime. Social capital measures the extent to which an individual is bonded to legitimate society. According to the social control perspective. bonds to society strengthen as the individual ages,...

This paper investigates the relationship between property crimes and work using data from the 1958 Philadelphia Birth Cohort Study. These data provide a unique opportunity to investigate the crime as work model, containing information on earnings and arrests for a sample representative of young...

This paper presents a dynamic model of criminal choice in which an offender's probability of arrest depends on his level of criminal activity as well as the actions of the criminal justice system. In addition, current choices affect future outcomes through a stock accumulation process. We...

December 1, 1996 a new law was implemented in Portugal to gradually reduce the standard workweek from 44 to 40 hours. We study how this mandatory reduction affected employment through job creation and job destruction. We find evidence that the working hours reduction had a positive effect on...