MEASURING CRACK COCAINE AND ITS IMPACT
研究了快克可卡因是否解释1980年代黑人社会指标恶化，通过构建快克流行指数，发现其解释了黑人青年凶杀率上升和不良出生结果增加，但影响在1990年代减弱。
Numerous social indicators turned negative for Blacks in the 1980s and rebounded a decade later. We explore whether crack cocaine explains these patterns. Absent a direct measure, we construct a crack prevalence index using multiple proxies. Our index reproduces spatial and temporal patterns described in ethnographic accounts of the crack epidemic. It explains much of the 1980s rise in Black youth homicide and more moderate increases in adverse birth outcomes. Although our index remains high through the 1990s, crack's deleterious social impact fades. Changes over time in behavior, crack markets, and the user population may have mitigated crack's damaging impacts .