Achievement

Monica Deza has completed a theoretical model of gateway drug use -- i.e., the idea that less serious drugs such as marijuana is a causal gateway to more serious forms of drug abuse such intravenious drugs. Ms. Deza used dynamic optimization theory to derive a theoretical model of multi-period drug use and then calibrated the model to actual data on youth drug use from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Her initial findings are that there is some evidence of gateway impacts.