Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health

Cunningham, Scott W.; Shah, Manisha

doi:10.1093/restud/rdx065

Cited by 147 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The approach uses statelevel data to create a counterfactual group that can resemble both the averages and trajectories of key variables of treated units (those experiencing a discrete change in policy). This approach has been used to study a wide variety of policy changes including the decriminalization of prostitution (Cunningham and Shah 2018), highway police budget cuts (DeAngelo and Hansen 2014), minimum wage increases (Jardim et al 2017), and economic liberalization (Billmeier and Nannicini 2013). Consider a setting with Y it where i represents a unit, such as a state, and t represents a time period, such as a year.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

2018

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Over the last few years, marijuana has become legally available for recreational use to roughly a quarter of Americans. Policy makers have long expressed concerns about the substantial external costs of alcohol, and similar costs could come with the liberalization of marijuana policy. Indeed, the fraction of fatal accidents in which at least one driver tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol has increased nationwide by an average of 10% from 2013 to 2016. For Colorado and Washington, both of which legalized marijuana in 2014, these increases were 92% and 28%, respectively. However, identifying a causal effect is difficult due to the presence of significant confounding factors. We test for a causal effect of marijuana legalization on traffic fatalities in Colorado and Washington with a synthetic control approach using records on fatal traffic accidents from 2000 to 2016. We find the synthetic control groups saw similar changes in marijuana‐related, alcohol‐related, and overall traffic fatality rates despite not legalizing recreational marijuana. (JEL K42, I12, I18)

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

2018

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“…The p-value of the estimated dispensary effect is equal to the percentile rank of the treated CBSA's ratio relative to the placebo ratios and describes the probability that an actual effect of that magnitude would be observed by chance. A high ratio for the treated CBSA suggests the synthetic control model fit the pretreatment trends well but was unable to replicate the magnitude of the effects following the opening of a dispensary (Cunningham and Shah 2017).…”

Section: A Synthetic Control Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries on Adverse Opioid Outcomes

Smith

2019

Economic Inquiry

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As more states enact laws liberalizing marijuana use and the U.S. opioid epidemic surges to unprecedented levels, understanding the relationship between marijuana and opioids is growing increasingly important. Using a unique self‐constructed marijuana dispensary dataset, I estimate the impact of increased marijuana access on opioid‐related harms. I exploit within‐ and across‐state variation in dispensary openings and find county‐level prescription opioid‐related fatalities decline by 11% following the opening a dispensary. The estimated dispensary effects are qualitatively similar for opioid‐related admissions to treatment facilities. These results are strongest for males and suggest a substitutability between marijuana and opioids.

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“…However, there is a dearth of empirical research that assesses the impact of sex work regulation on the incidence of STIs. To the best of our knowledge, only Gertler and Shah (2011) and Cunningham and Shah (2014) have directly and empirically addressed this question. Gertler and Shah (2011) use individual-level data from a national representative survey of Ecuador to study the effect of enforcing licensing laws on the sex workers' rates of STIs.…”

Section: Sex Work Regulation and Stismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They find that increasing licensing enforcement in the street sector increases STIs significantly, while higher enforcement in the brothel sector increases the probability of a sex worker to acquire an STI. Cunningham and Shah (2014) analyze the impact of the unexpected and temporary decriminalization of indoor prostitution in Rhode Island from 2003 and 2009 on state-level incidence rates of gonorrhea and violent crime. They find that this policy led to a reduction of 39% in gonorrhea and 31% in reported rape offenses.…”

Section: Sex Work Regulation and Stismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gertler and Shah (2011) find that increasing licensing enforcement in the street sector in Ecuador leads to decreases in STI prevalence rates among sex workers, while higher enforcement in the brothel sector increases the probability that a sex worker ever acquires an STI. In their analysis of an unexpected decriminalization of indoor prostitution in Rhode Island, Cunningham and Shah (2014) find that the incidence rate of gonorrhea among the general population fell by 39%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sex Work Regulation and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Tijuana, Mexico

Quast

González

2016

Health Econ.

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While reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted infections is a common argument for regulating sex work, relatively little empirical evidence is available regarding the effectiveness of these policies. We investigate the effects of highly publicized sex work regulations introduced in 2005 in Tijuana, Mexico on the incidence of trichomoniasis. State-level, annual data for the 1995-2012 period are employed that include the incidence rates of trichomoniasis by age group and predictor variables. We find that the regulations led to a decrease in the incidence rate of trichomoniasis. Specifically, while our estimates are somewhat noisy, the all-ages incidence rate in the 2005-2012 period is roughly 37% lower than what is predicted by our synthetic control estimates and corresponds to approximately 800 fewer reported cases of trichomoniasis per year. We find that the decreases are especially pronounced for 15-24 and 25-44 age cohorts. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health

Cited by 147 publications

References 42 publications

Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

The Effects of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries on Adverse Opioid Outcomes

Sex Work Regulation and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Tijuana, Mexico

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