Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
Department
Economics
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Opioid overdose in the United Kingdom has risen drastically over the last few years along with the rise in the use of zero-hours contracts. Zero-hours contracts are contracts for employment that guarantee no work but can anchor a person to a job that doesn’t pay above minimum wage when they do not receive work. Since opioid use is often associated with poorer economic conditions in the United States, this paper attempts to measure any correlation between poverty and opioid use in the UK. Using zero-hours contracts as a proxy for underemployment we use several regression models to determine the predictability of the proxy on opioid overdose and the extent to which change in underemployment can affect opioid overdose death rates.
Advisor(s) or Committee Chair
Dr. Brian Strow, Dr. Stephen Locke, Dr. Dennis Wilson
Disciplines
Economics | Macroeconomics | Public Health
Recommended Citation
Grace, Hayden, "Opioid Overdose and Unemployment in the UK" (2019). Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 810.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/810