Despite decades of policies aimed at curbing the manufacture, sale, and use of illicit substances, U.S. drug policy has failed to achieve the desired goals. This talk explores the economics of illegal drug markets. Using the tools of economics, it analyzes why historical and contemporary polices have not functioned as intended and why said policies often exacerbate the very problems they are intended to correct. Alternatives are explored, including the observed and potential impacts of decriminalization and legalization.

Abigail Hall is an Associate Professor of Economics at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. She is an affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, an affiliated scholar with the Foundation for Economic Education, and a Research Fellow with the Independent Institute. She earned her PhD in Economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in 2015.  Hall is the coauthor of Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism, published by Stanford University Press in 2018. Her body of work includes more than 25 scholarly articles and book chapters. Her popular writings have been featured in a number of national and international outlets. Her broader research interests include Austrian Economics, Political Economy, Public Choice, and Defense and Peace Economics. Hall’s work includes topics surrounding the U.S. military and national defense, including, domestic police militarization, arm sales, weapons as foreign aid, the cost of military mobilization, and the political economy of military technology. Her current research examines the susceptibility of democracies to government propaganda, policing, and the relationship between militarism and domestic extremism.

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