The Cost of Culture: Examining a Sociological Model of the Opiod Epidemic in the United States

Since the late 90s, the United States has been dealing with an increased abuse of opoids, with more overdose deaths resulting in what we now call "the opoid epidemic." Drawing inspiration from J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, this paper examines several factors that may have contribute to the overdose deaths, focusing on sociological factors such as association rates, crime rates, and physical and mental distress. I use 2016 cross-sectional data from 412 counties, regressing the log of drug overdose death rate on serval factors to construct a model of the epidemic, aiming to find specific factors to target when considering how to tackle the crisis. I also use Akaike information criterion (AIC) to determine the best factors to include in my model. I find that while sociological factors play some role in overdose deaths, this role is smaller than I had hypothsized. The model suggests instead that economic factors such as unemployment rate and income inequality are more important. However this model does not account for possible multicollinearity and endogeneity; thus further tests need to be conducted to better understand how these factors impact opioid overdose deaths.