All tagged economics

The Behavioral Economics of Substance Abuse

To understand the reasoning behind substance abuse, we have to look at it from economic and psychological aspects, which brings us to the behavioral economic theory of substance abuse. It represents the reinforcers and contingencies, whether endogenous, as a subjective response to drugs, stress or arousal, or exogenous, which are the environmental factors such as low availability of alternatives, low prices of substances, social contexts that promote substance use, as well as life events that cause stress or dysphoria, that push the individual toward making cost-benefit decisions (Murphy & Dennhardt, 2016). 

Land Reform in Venezuela -- Developmental Economics Analysis on Property Rights, Part A

In Venezuela, the discovery of oil was an excitement for the fast and easy track it paved to wealth. Venezuela’s agricultural industry, on the other hand, was largely neglected due to over-emphasis on the oil industry. Such a tilted policy design deepened the tremendous gap between rural and urban areas, with only 12% of its population living in the rural area who produces food insufficient for the whole nation (Wilpert, 2007). Nevertheless, the greater demand for food did not fuel the welfare of the most fundamental supplier group – the farmers. Instead, it filled up the pocket of the elite class, the latifundista, as they had overwhelming property control over the key resources. Misallocation of property rights not only hinders the production power of the traditional farming class, it also causes a vicious cycle where incentives for relevant activities are nowhere to be found.