Econ Speaker to Examine Drug Prohibition

Featured speaker Dr. Audrey Redford earned her Ph.D. in economics from Texas Tech University and her undergraduate degree, also in economics, from James Madison University. Her research interests in entrepreneurship include market adaptations to changes in policy and institutional foundations using the tools of public choice economics, comparative institutional analysis, and Australian economics. While in graduate school she was an Adam Smith Fellow with the Mercatus Center and a Humane Studies Fellow with the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.

Redford’s presentation will begin to answer questions such as: What does ‘drug prohibition’ mean in the United States? How does our understanding of illegal drug markets change as we examine the unintended consequences of drug prohibition policies in addition to the intended consequences? How do changes in drug policy influence entrepreneurial behavior in illegal drug markets and sometimes unintentionally incentivize dangerous outcomes? How are the answers to these questions relevant to our current opioid crisis?