Drugs, Crime, and Liberalization: NAFTA's effects on Drug Use and Crime Rates in the United States

For this project, I analyze whether the implementation of NAFTA had any statistically significant impact on drug use rates and crime rates in the United States. There is a diverse body of literature that ties the opening of... [ view full abstract ]

For this project, I analyze whether the implementation of NAFTA had any statistically significant impact on drug use rates and crime rates in the United States. There is a diverse body of literature that ties the opening of vulnerable nations to international trade to subsequent societal destabilization. Using crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, mortality data from the Center of Disease Control, and measures of vulnerability from previously published papers, I attempt to find whether the U.S. falls within this trend or its trade has been societally costless. Preliminary investigations suggest that there is at least a minor link between drug abuse and crime within certain regions of the United States and their inability to effectively compete with the influx of competition from Mexico. However, vulnerability to the Mexico trade shock and subsequent societal ills are disproportionally borne by people without a college education in regions of the country that specialize in low skilled labor.