Behavioral economics of drug self-administration: an introduction

Behavioral economics provides a set of concepts for the analysis of factors that control the allocation of behavioral resources among available reinforcers. Terms from micro-economics describe new phenomena previously ignored within the traditional context of behavior analysis. This article reviews these concepts as an introduction to the three papers that follow. The primary dependent measure within the behavioral economic framework is the level of consumption of available commodities as determined by the level and distribution of instrumental responding. The demand curve provides a quantitative metric for analyzing consumption under the constraint of unit price. When the reinforcer is a drug, the demand curve can be a useful tool for analyzing the level of motivation to consume the drug, its abuse liability, and for evaluating interventions, such as alternative reinforcers or medications, to reduce the motivation to consume the drug and instrumental responding to obtain it. Behavioral economics also provides a framework for formulating, testing, and refining drug abuse policy through a series of empirical steps that maximize effectiveness and minimize undesirable social consequences.