Jonathan P. Caulkins

About

Jonathan P. Caulkins is the H. Guyford Stever University Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College. He specializes in systems analysis of problems related to drugs, crime, terror, violence, and prevention. His work in these areas has earned him several awards, including the David Kershaw Award from the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management, a Robert Wood Johnson Health Investigator Award, and the INFORMS President's Award. Caulkins has contributed to the understanding of issues surrounding cannabis legalization and co-authored the second edition of his book Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press). His research interests also include optimal control, reputation and brand management, human trafficking, and black markets. He has taught quantitative decision-making across four continents to students from 50 countries, ranging from undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates and executives. Caulkins has authored or co-authored more than 140 refereed articles and 10 books. He has held leadership roles such as past Co-director of RAND's Drug Policy Research Center and founding Director of RAND's Pittsburgh office, and continues to collaborate with RAND on various projects. His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in systems science from Washington University, and an S.M. in electrical engineering and computer science along with a doctorate in…

Research topics

• Computer Security
• Medicine
• Economics
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Environmental health
• Econometrics
• Economy
• Geography
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• Heroin use cannot be measured adequately with a general population survey

  Addiction · 2021 · 131 citations

  BACKGROUND: Globally, heroin and other opioids account for more than half of deaths and years-of-life-lost due to drug use and comprise one of the four major markets for illegal drugs. Having sound estimates of the number of problematic heroin users is fundamental to formulating sound health and criminal justice policies. Researchers and policymakers rely heavily upon general population surveys (GPS), such as the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), to estimate heroin use, without…

  DOI

• Changes in self‐reported cannabis use in the United States from 1979 to 2022

  Addiction · 2024-05-22 · 113 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Multiple countries are considering revising cannabis policies. This study aimed to measure long-term trends in cannabis use in the United States and compare them with alcohol use. DESIGN AND SETTING: Secondary analysis of United States general population survey data. PARTICIPANTS: The national surveys had a total of 1 641 041 participants across 27 surveys from 1979 to 2022. MEASUREMENTS: Rates of use reported to the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health and its predeces…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The optimal lockdown intensity for COVID-19

  Journal of Mathematical Economics · 2021 · 81 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  , the optimal unemployment rate could be low, medium, or high, but not anywhere in between. These complex dynamics emerge naturally from modeling the COVID-19 epidemic and suggest a degree of humility in policy debates. Even people who share a common understanding of the problem's economics and epidemiology can prefer dramatically different policies. Conversely, favoring very different policies is not evident that there are fundamental disagreements.

  DOI

• Rapid changes in illegally manufactured fentanyl products and prices in the United States

  Addiction · 2022-05-11 · 42 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Synthetic opioids, mostly illegally manufactured fentanyl (IMF), were mentioned in 60% of United States (US) drug overdose deaths in 2020, with dramatic variation across states that mirrors variation in IMF supply. However, little is known about IMF markets in the United States and how they are changing. Researchers have previously used data from undercover cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine purchases and seizures to examine how their use and related harms respond to chang…

  PublisherDOI

• How much demand for money laundering services does drug selling create? Identifying the key parameters

  International Journal of Drug Policy · 2022-03-23 · 24 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: The illegal drug trade is often, and plausibly, asserted to be the largest illegal market, globally and in many individual countries. It is also claimed that a large share of its revenues is laundered, though there are no estimates of that volume. We provide rough estimates of that proportion and its primary determinants. METHODS AND DATA: This paper presents a model of a multi-tiered drug distribution network that is parameterized with data based on one typical, well-studied case, n…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Beau Kilmer

  107 shared

• Peter Reuter

  100 shared

• Gustav Feichtinger

  Statistics Austria

  89 shared

• Mark A. R.Kleiman

  New York University

  62 shared

• Gernot Tragler

  TU Wien

  56 shared

• Rosalie Liccardo Pacula

  University of Southern California

  54 shared

• Peter M. Kort

  Tilburg University

  43 shared

• Benedikt Fischer

  University of Auckland

  42 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Operations Research

  Carnegie Mellon University

  1986

• M.S., Operations Research

  Carnegie Mellon University

  1983

• B.S., Mathematics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1981

Awards & honors

• David Kershaw Award from the Association of Public Policy An…
• Robert Wood Johnson Health Investigator Award
• INFORMS President's Award

Similar researchers at Carnegie Mellon University

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• David Choih-48
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