Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0

Author-Name: Michele Baggio
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Connecticut, USA
Author-Workplace-Email: michele.baggio@uconn.edu

Author-Name: Alberto Chong
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Georgia State University, USA
Author-Workplace-Email: achong6@gsu.edu

Title: Recreational Marijuana Laws and Junk Food Consumption:
Evidence Using Border Analysis and Retail Sales Data

Abstract: We use retail scanner data on purchases of high calorie food to study the link between recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) and consumption of high calorie food. To do this we exploit differences in the timing of introduction of marijuana laws among states and find that they are complements. Specifically, in counties located in RML states, monthly sales of high calorie food increased by 3.1 percent for ice cream, 4.1 for cookies, and 5.3 percent for chips. Results are robust to including placebo effective dates for RMLs in treated states as well as when using synthetic control methods as an alternative methodology.

Length: 21 pages 

Creation-Date: 2019-09

File-URL: https://icepp.gsu.edu/files/2019/09/paper1916.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf

Handle: RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1916