Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/290150 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
Texto para Discussão No. 2985
Publisher: 
Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasília
Abstract (Translated): 
The prohibition of certain psychoactive drugs and the consequent police repression result in thousands of deaths from violent actions in Brazil each year. In this work, we quantify the magnitude of this problem based on some economic and public health indicators. Taking 2017 as a reference, we estimate that homicides related to drug prohibition lead to a reduction in life expectancy at birth for Brazilians of 4.2 months, or a loss of 1.148 million years of potential life. Following the methodology adopted by Daniel Cerqueira and Rodrigo Soares, we also estimate the welfare cost of this tragedy for the country, which corresponds to approximately R$ 50 billion annually, or 0.77% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Subjects: 
drug prohibitionism
welfare cost
potential years of life lost
life expectancy
homicides
JEL: 
I18
I30
K42
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
URL of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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