Table 1.

Key Behavioral Economic Concepts and Findings, Evidence-Based Interventions, and COVID-19 Recommendations

Concept	Research findings	Evidence-based interventions	COVID-19 recommendations
Own-price Commodity Relationships	Drug consumption decreases as the drug price increases (Murphy & MacKillop, 2006; Petry & Bickel, 1998) Increasing the opportunity cost decreases motivation to consume substances (Acuff, Amlung, et al., 2019; Joyner et al., 2019)	Brief Motivational Interventions Contingency Management Icelandic Model Relapse Prevention	Increase awareness of costs/consequences of drinking Monitor substance use; alter the microenvironment to reduce/constrain substance availability Increase the “opportunity cost” by scheduling responsibilities in the morning
Cross-price Commodity Relationships	Introducing substance-free alternatives into a choice context generally decreases substance use (Ahmed, 2018), whereas removing such alternatives results in increases in substance use (Ginsburg & Lamb, 2018) Alternatives may compete with and “substitute” for substance use, or serve as an economic “complement” and increase substance use (Hursh, 1980)	Community Reinforcement Approach LETS ACT Substance-free Activity Session Contingency Management	Increase engagement in substitutes for substance use (e.g., exercise, hobbies, spending time in nature) Reduce constraints on access to treatment services Increase access to Internet and online educational content Maintain unemployment benefits, issue stimulus checks, and consider bolder policies such as universal basic income to ensure access to alternatives
Time Horizons and Contexts for Choice	Preference between sooner smaller and later larger rewards changes dynamically as a function of time to reward availability (Ainslie & Herrnstein, 1981) Greater delay discounting is associated with substance use (MacKillop et al., 2011) Scarcity and uncertainty increase delay discounting (Snider et al., 2020; Vanderveldt, Green, & Myerson, 2015), and related stress response results in local maximization and increased substance demand (Acuff, Amlung, Dennhardt, MacKillop, & Murphy, 2020; Amlung & MacKillop, 2014)	Episodic Future Thinking Substance-free Activity Session Self-monitoring Change default choice options	Extend time horizons for decision-making into the future Increase resource availability Connect longer-term goals and the benefits of accomplishing them with day-to-day patterns of substance use Alter the choice context to discourage substance decisions and encourage prohealth decisions