Analysis of Deterrent Events on Cocaine Prices
Methodology
Transfer Function Models: Technical Exposition
Our objective was to estimate the effect of interdictions on prices, controlling for
confounding variables and correlation in the data. The effects of interdictions may be delayed or
dynamic (or both), and the price series itself is a correlated time series. These possibilities were allowed for by transfer function models (Box et al. (1994), Mills (1990)) of the form
where
is the combined effect of control variables (time, weather, and Coast Guard and
Department of Defense force laydown),
is the combined effect of interdictions, and
N(L)wt represents a correlated noise series. Thus, aside from the control variables, the transfer function model containing p interdictions is
where pricet is the price, xjt is the value of the jth interdiction, and wt is a white noise error term,
all at month t. The effect of the jth interdiction is assumed to transfer its effect on price via the ratio of two polynomials in the lag operator L, where Lxt = xt-1, L2xt = xt-2, L3xt = xt-3, and so on,
Thus, R(L) is a possibly infinite polynomial in L that can flexibly and parsimoniously model the
dynamic relationship between pricet and xt, xt-1, xt-2, …. The factor Lk allows for the possibility of
pure delay of k months, the time period before the dynamic effect of xt on pricet takes effect.
The correlated noise series nt = N(L)wt is modeled in a similar fashion, by a transfer function of a white noise series
If nt = N(L)wt then nt is said to be generated by an autoregressive moving average process of
order (u,v), a flexible and parsimonious way of accounting for the relationship between pricet and
pricet-1, pricet-2, pricet-3, …. In the above expression, nt is assumed to be stationary, possibly after
detrending or differencing.
Transfer Function Models: Our Approach
All of our price series were stationary, and ARMA representations were either AR(1) or the
product of AR(1) and AR(12), and thus
respectively. The parameters were typically positive, representing positive month-to-month
correlation in the AR(1) case, and positive year-to-year correlation (seasonality) in the AR(12)
case.
Our transfer functions for interdictions usually incorporated delays,
and occasionally
incorporated simple geometric dynamic components,
"Dynamic" simply
means that the total effect was distributed over time. If
then an interdiction
commencing operation at month t (a unit increase in x from (t-1) to t) changes prices at time (t + k). That is, there is a k-period delay. When the interdiction becomes inactive, prices return to
their original level k months later. In the dynamic case,
and an
interdiction commencing at month t changes price by
at time (t + k), by a
at time (t + k + 1),
by a2
at time (t + k + 2), and so on. The total increase in price is
and the rate of adjustment is governed by the parameter a. Finally, k months after interdiction
termination, prices begin an exponential decline to their original level.
For example, wholesale prices at the South West Border were influenced by three interdictions, x1 = Orejuela Arrests, x2 = Support Justice III, and x3 = Support Justice IV. Orejuela Arrests had a
dynamic effect with no delay, and the two source zone interdictions had non-dynamic effects
each with a five month delay. In addition, the model contained a time trend, Coast Guard force
laydown, and an AR(1) error term. The estimated model was
Parameters associated with control variables are interpreted in the usual way. The positive effect for CG indicates that a unit increase in the Coast Guard force laydown (a doubling from the 1991 figure) would increase wholesale prices by $3.8 (actually this was not statistically significant).
The trend parameter implies that, had the other variables in the model held constant, wholesale
prices would have dropped by about $6 over the course of the 96 months study.
Turning to the time series components of the model, the AR(1) error term estimates a positive
month-to-month correlation of 0.14, but the absence of an AR(12) term implies no seasonal
effects. The effect of Support Justice III (November 1991 through April 1992) and Support
Justice IV (January 1993 through March 1994) was to increase wholesale prices five months later
by $5.5 and $3.1 respectively. The effect of the Orejuela Arrests (June 1995 through August
1995) was to increase wholesale prices by $3.8 in the month of the arrest, $3.8(0.7) = $2.66 the
next month, and $3.8(0.7)2 = $1.862 the following month. Conceptually, if a king pin figure
equivalent to the Orejuela brothers could have been arrested every month, prices would have
eventually increased by $3.8/(1 . 0.7) = $12.67,and 90% of this would have been attained by the
sixth month after the first arrest. In fact, the last Orejuela arrest was in August 1995, so prices
began an exponential decline to their original level starting in September 1995.
Model Selection
For all four price series (retail and wholesale, national and South West Border), we used a
common baseline model containing a time trend (t), Weather (the proportion of hurricane days in
the month t), Coast Guard and Department of Defense force laydown (CGt and DoDt) and the
product of an AR(1) and AR(12) term allowing month-to-month, and year-to-year correlation.
Thus the baseline model was
All such models appeared to be suitably stationary; the Dickey-Fuller test rejected the unit root
null hypothesis in favor of stationarity for all four price series (p<0.006).
For a given price series, model selection involved adding interdictions, with appropriate delays, to
the baseline model. The motivation for a careful selection process arises because several
interdictions occurred at, or around, the same time as other interdictions. Two interdictions that
are active over exactly the same time period are impossible to untangle. They cannot both be
entered into the model, and if one interdiction is chosen, it actually represents both. More
generally, a set of interdictions with considerable overlap presents similar problems. Estimates
are either extremely imprecise (if the entire set is included in the model), or the partial set is to
some extent a surrogate for the entire set (if a partial set is included). Statisticians say that such
effects are collinear, a problem that will plague all the analyses reported here.
Many of our 18 interdictions were either extended impulses (Gateway, Support Justice IV) or step
functions (Laser Strike, Border Shield, River Sweep) with considerable overlap. One way of
measuring the degree of overlap is by the R2 obtained by regressing one interdiction on all the
others (table xx). The variance inflation factor, VIF = 1/(1 - R2), then measures the resulting
imprecision. For example, 96% of the variation in Laser Strike is explained by the other
interdictions, and the inflation of the variance of Laser Strikes parameter estimate increases 27
fold as a result of including the other interdictions in the model. Although these remarks strictly
apply to linear models, they are broadly applicable to transfer function models also. For this
reason, we were cautious about including highly correlated interdictions in the same model, and
in particular, we excluded Laser Strike when analyzing South West Border prices.
Interdiction R-squares and Variance Inflation Factors
| Interdiction Type
| Interdiction
| R2
| VIF
|
|
| Source Zone |
Shoot-down
Laser Strike
Support Justice III
Support Justice IV
Stand Down |
0.65
0.96
0.18
0.34
0.22 |
2.88
27.21
1.22
1.52
1.29 |
| Arrests/Deaths |
Orejuela Arrests
Arrests/Deaths
Columbus |
0.34
0.22
0.11 |
1.52
1.28
1.12 |
| Arrival/Transit Zone |
Zorro II
Border Shield
Brass Ring
Hard Line
River Sweep
Conjuntos I
Conjuntos II
Frontier Lance
Frontier Shield
Gateway |
0.67
0.90
0.78
0.87
0.94
0.41
0.06
0.67
0.29
0.94 |
3.03
10.45
4.46
7.49
17.68
1.69
1.06
3.04
1.41
15.50 |
Model development involved the selection of an interdiction as well as the selection of its optimal
delay. The ranges of delay that were considered were 4 to 6 for the five source zone interdictions,
and 0 to 2 for all other interdiction types. Thus with 18 interdictions, there were (3)(18) = 54
candidate variables. Since the high correlation among interdictions favored a forward selection
method, our approach was to add the best variable (interdiction-lag combination) to the baseline
model. Given the large number of tests involved (about 50), we used a reasonably stringent entry
criteria: at each iteration of the selection procedure, the best variable entered the model provided its p-value was less than 0.075. At the end of the selection procedure we then considered
excluding insignificant variables, and explored dynamic specifications for the transfer functions.
The following tables illustrate this procedure for retail prices at the South West Border.
SWB Retail Prices: (AIC=1015.07, Obs=96)
Model = Baseline +
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
AR(12)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
DoD
Weather |
|
131.02
0.36
0.03
0.76
140.42
16.56
38.11 |
56.89
0.10
0.11
0.91
96.35
86.32
55.56 |
0.0236
0.0005
0.8114
0.4062
0.1485
0.8483
0.4945 |
SWB Retail Prices: (AIC=961.74, Obs=92)
Model = Baseline + SJIII
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
AR(12)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
DoD
Weather
Support Justice III |
4 |
153.69
0.15
0.11
1.07
180.80
64.59
34.56
96.41 |
42.33
0.11
0.12
0.75
77.74
66.57
52.76
30.74 |
0.0005
0.1772
0.3530
0.1583
0.0224
0.3348
0.5143
0.0024 |
SWB Retail Prices: (AIC=954.40, Obs=92)
Model = Baseline + SJIII + Arrests/Deaths
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
AR(12)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
DoD
Weather
Support Justice III
Arrests/Deaths |
4 1 |
142.77
0.08
0.16
0.89
158.79
47.10
27.33
101.81
74.70 |
38.37
0.11
0.12
0.68
70.47
60.60
49.88
28.18
24.89 |
0.0004
0.4519
0.1830
0.1982
0.0269
0.4393
0.5852
0.0005
0.0036 |
SWB Retail Prices: (AIC=949.63, Obs=92)
Model = Baseline + SJIII + Arrests/Deaths + Hard Line
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
AR(12)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
DoD
Weather
Support Justice III
Arrests/Deaths
Hard Line |
4 1 2 |
114.20
0.01
0.20
0.87
159.87
16.85
44.28
98.48
64.56
33.99 |
36.13
0.11
0.12
0.62
63.58
56.07
47.90
25.74
24.52
12.76 |
0.0022
0.9207
0.0808
0.1658
0.0139
0.7645
0.3579
0.0003
0.0101
0.0093 |
SWB Retail Prices: (AIC=946.71, Obs=92)
Model = Baseline + SJIII + Arrests/Deaths + Hard Line + Conjuntos II
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
AR(12)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
DoD
Weather
Support Justice III
Arrests/Deaths
Hard Line
Conjuntos II |
4 1 2 1 |
121.18
0.06
0.16
0.99
167.50
25.21
39.23
98.91
66.35
35.37
86.48 |
34.18
0.11
0.12
0.59
60.09
52.86
46.89
24.38
24.20
12.18
41.68 |
0.0007
0.6291
0.1781
0.0933
0.0066
0.6347
0.4052
0.0001
0.0075
0.0048
0.0412 |
Thus the final iteration of the selection procedure chose Support Justice III with lag 4 (p<0.0001), Arrests/Deaths with lag 1 (p=0.0075), Hard Line with lag 2 (p=0.0048), and Conjuntos II with lag 1 (p=0.0412). The likelihood ratio test for the inclusion of all four variables was 29.9 on 4 degrees of freedom (p<0.0001) and the improvement in AIC was 21.9. Given these four
interdictions, we were able to do an exhaustive search for the optimum delays.
Results
Having illustrated our approach, we proceed to apply the forward selection procedure to all four
price series. The results follow.
National Wholesale Prices
The final iteration of the forward selection procedure for national wholesale prices added Support
Justice III with lag 5 (p=0.006), Orejuela Arrests with no lag (p=0.004), Shoot-down with lag 6
(p=0.001), Border Shield with lag 2 (p=0.002), and Brass Ring with a lag of 2 (p=0.020) to the
baseline model. The likelihood ratio test for the inclusion of all five variables was 28.1 on 5
degrees of freedom (p<0.0001), and the improvement in AIC was 18.1.
Fine-tuning the above model resulted in the removal of Brass Ring, DoD, Coast Guard, and
AR(12), which had the effect of slightly reducing the AIC from 471.2 to 466.5. The final model is
shown in the following table
Final Model for National Wholesale Prices (AIC=466.5, Obs=102)
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
Time Trend
Weather
Support Justice III
Orejuela Arrests
Shoot-down
Border Shield |
5 0 6 2 |
38.96
0.22
0.17
4.03
3.53
4.71
3.58
4.52 |
0.84
0.11
0.02
1.30
1.24
1.60
1.09
1.15 |
<.0001
0.0384
<.0001
0.0026
0.0055
0.0042
0.0014
0.0002 |
The effects of all four interdictions were highly statistically significant (p<0.006). The effect of the two source zone interdictions, Support Justice III (November 1991 through April 1992) and Shoot Down (March 1995 through November 1995) was to increase wholesale prices by about
$3.5 five to six months later (p<0.006). The effect of Orejuela Arrests (June 1995 through August
1995) was to increase wholesale prices by $4.7 in the month of the arrest (p=0.004), and the
effect of long active Border Shield (March 1997 onwards) was to increase wholesale prices by
$4.5 with a delay of two months.
Both national wholesale and national retail prices (presented below) estimated a positive month-to-month correlation [0.22 (p=0.038) for wholesale, and 0.37 (p=0.0002) for retail], but no
seasonal effect could be detected in the final models. In addition, both wholesale and retail prices
were affected by weather, $4.0 (p=0.003) for wholesale and $17.2 (p=0.134) for retail. Thus
wholesale prices in months with hurricanes every day (e.g. April, May and June 1997) are
expected to be $4 higher than months with no hurricanes (e.g. the four months preceding April
1997). Similarly, retail prices are expected to be $17 higher in hurricane-saturated months than in
hurricane-free months. The effects of weather and month-to-month correlation are evident from
the figure depicting the final models for national wholesale and national retail prices. In
particular, high prices in the spring of 1997 appear to be largely attributable to the high frequency of hurricanes during that period.
National Retail Prices
The first four interdictions added to the baseline model for national retail prices by the forward
selection procedure were the same for national wholesale prices: Support Justice III, Orejuela
Arrests, Shoot Down, and Border Shield. In the case of retail prices, the optimal lags were
Support Justice III with lag 4 (p=0.006), Orejuela Arrests with lag 1 (p=0.004), Shoot-down with
lag 6 (p=0.001), and Border Shield with lag 1 (p=0.002). The likelihood ratio test for the
inclusion of all four variables was 19.3 on 4 degrees of freedom (p=0.0007), and the
improvement in AIC was 11.3
Fine-tuning the above model resulted in the removal of Weather, DoD, Coast Guard, and AR(12),
which had the effect of slightly reducing the AIC from 907.3 to 903.9. The final model is shown
in the following table.
Final Model for National Retail Prices (AIC=903.9, Obs=102)
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
Time Trend
Weather
Support Justice III
Orejuela Arrests
Shoot-down
Border Shield |
4
1
6
1 |
131.34
0.37
-0.43
17.15
29.81
33.12
25.83
29.73
|
8.66
0.10
0.19
11.35
12.01
14.61
10.54
11.67
|
<.0001
0.0002
0.0229
0.1341
0.0149
0.0257
0.0161
0.0125 |
The effects of all four interdictions were statistically significant (p<0.026). The effect of the two source zone interdictions, Support Justice III (November 1991 through April 1992) and Shoot
Down (March 1995 through November 1995) was to increase wholesale prices four and six
months later by $30 and $26 respectively (p<0.017). The effect of the Orejuela Arrests (June
1995 through August 1995) was to increase wholesale prices by $33 (p=0.026), and the effect of
long active Border Shield (March 1997 onward) was to increase wholesale prices by $30
(p=0.013). In both cases the delay was by one month.
For wholesale prices, the effects of Shoot Down and Orejuela Arrests were strictly adjacent,
giving rise to two plateaus of elevated prices lasting 12 months. For retail prices, in contrast, the
two interdictions were additive for the month of September 1995, and this combined effect
appears to largely account for the unusually large spike in retail prices that month. The final
model predicts a still higher price because of the high hurricane percentage in August (48% or 15
days) and September (32% or 10 days), the effect of hurricanes in August on prices in September
being explained by the positive month-to-month correlation.
South West Border Wholesale Prices
The data for the South West Border prices differed from that for the National prices in two ways.
First, to avoid collinearity problems with interdictions less relevant to the South West Border, we
excluded Frontier Lance, Frontier Shield, Gateway and Laser Strike. Second, in order to obtain
stationarity (the mean and variance of the series were unusually high during this period), we did
not use the first year of data. Based on the resulting 1992 through 1999 series, the Dickey-Fuller
test easily rejected the unit root null hypothesis in favor of stationarity for both wholesale prices
(p=0.0001) and retail prices (p= 0.0061).
The final iteration of the forward selection procedure for South West Border wholesale prices
added the following interdictions to the baseline model: Orejuela Arrests with lag 1 (p=0.0004),
Support Justice III with lag 5 (p=0.007), and Support Justice IV with lag 5 (p=0.024). The
likelihood ratio test for the inclusion of all four variables was 19.7 on 3 degrees of freedom
(p<0.0001), and the improvement in AIC was 13.7. A subsequent exhaustive search for the
optimum delays for these three interdictions showed that the forward selection model was
actually the optimal model. The top ten of the 33 = 27 models (delay choices) are listed below. As expected, similar models produced similar estimates.
Top delay choices for the three selected interdictions: SWB Wholesale
| Delay
| Improvement
| Model
| Baseline
| Diff
|
d1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
0
2
1 |
d2
5
5
5
5
4
4
5
5
4
6 |
d3
5
4
5
4
5
4
6
5
5
5
|
Or/A
6.77
6.82
6.87
6.84
6.90
6.92
6.79
5.02
6.92
6.99
|
SJIII
5.57
5.69
5.64
5.72
4.29
4.25
4.32
5.69
4.16
2.17 |
SJIV
2.48
2.29
2.51
2.25
2.25
2.04
1.53
2.51
2.27
2.29 |
p-LRT
.0002
.0003
.0003
.0006
.0013
.0019
.0021
.0023
.0025
.0029 |
LRT
19.7
18.8
18.5
17.4
15.7
14.9
14.7
14.5
14.3
14.0 |
in AIC
13.7
12.8
12.5
11.4
9.7
8.9
8.7
8.5
8.3
8.0 |
AIC
450.7
451.6
451.9
453.0
454.7
459.5
449.5
455.9
456.1
450.2 |
AIC
464.4
464.4
464.4
464.4
464.4
468.4
458.2
464.4
464.4
458.2 |
param
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3 |
Fine-tuning the above model resulted in the removal of Weather, DoD, and AR(12), and the
addition of a geometric lag for Orejuela Arrests starting at lag 0 (table xx). As a result, the AIC
was reduced from 450.7 to 443.8.
Final Model for South West Border Wholesale Prices (AIC=443.8, Obs=91)
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
Orejuela Arrests
Orej/Arr: Geom Lag
Support Justice III
Support Justice IV
|
0
0
5
5 |
24.42
0.14
-0.06
3.81
3.84
0.73
5.47
3.14 |
1.48
0.11
0.03
3.04
1.11
0.11
1.90
1.09 |
<.0001
0.1958
0.0268
0.2136
0.0009
<.0001
0.0051
0.0052 |
The estimates in the table correspond to the parameters of the transfer function model represented
by
where x1 = Orejuela Arrests, x2 = Support Justice III, and x3 = Support Justice IV. The model
indicates that wholesale prices at the South West Border were influenced by the three
interdictions with Orejuela Arrests having a dynamic effect with no delay, and the two source
zone interdictions having non-dynamic effects each with a five month delay.
The effect of Support Justice III (November 1991 through April 1992) and Support Justice IV
(January 1993 through March 1994) was to increase wholesale prices five months later by $5.5
and $3.1 respectively. The effect of the Orejuela Arrests (June 1995 through August 1995) was to
increase wholesale prices by $3.8 in the month of the arrest, $3.8(0.7) = $2.66 the next month,
and $3.8(0.7)2 = $1.862 the following month. Since the last Orejuela arrest was in August 1995,
prices began an exponential decline towards their original level starting in September 1995.
The other parameters in the model are unremarkable. The AR(1) error term is suggestive of a
positive month-to-month correlation of 0.14, but this result is not statistically significant. The
positive effect for CG indicates that a unit increase in the Coast Guard force laydown (a doubling
from the 1991 figure) would increase wholesale prices by $3.8, but again, this was not
statistically significant. The trend parameter implies that, had the other variables in the model
held constant, wholesale prices would have dropped by about $6 over the course of the 96 months
study.
South West Border Retail Prices
The final iteration of the forward selection for South West Border retail prices procedure added
Support Justice III with lag 4 (p<0.0001), Hard Line with lag 2 (p=0.005), Arrests/Deaths with
lag 1 (p=0.008), and Conjuntos II with lag 1 (p=0.041) to the baseline model. The likelihood ratio
test for the inclusion of all four variables was 29.9 on 4 degrees of freedom (p<0.0001), and the
improvement in AIC was 21.9. Given the four interdictions, an exhaustive search for the optimum
delays again showed that the optimal model coincided with that chosen by the forward selection
method. The top ten of the 34 = 81 models (delay choices) are listed below. Again, it is
encouraging to find that similar models produced similar estimates.
Top delay choices for the three selected interdictions: SWB Retail
| Delay
| Improvement
| Model
| Baseline
| Diff
|
d1
4
4
4
4
4
4
5
6
5
5 |
d2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 |
d3
2
1
2
0
1
0
2
2
1
2 |
d4
1
1
0
1
0
0
1
1
1
0 |
SJIII
98.91
98.41
98.72
97.91
98.11
97.53
94.00
77.37
93.30
93.29 |
A/D
66.35
67.90
67.34
70.01
68.91
71.06
65.02
67.22
66.41
65.92 |
HL
35.37
33.82
36.25
32.33
34.84
33.46
35.58
34.30
33.90
36.40 |
CII
86.48
84.35
79.05
82.24
76.26
73.34
86.65
91.94
84.50
76.06 |
p-LRT
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000 |
LRT
29.9
28.9
28.8
27.9
27.8
26.8
26.8
26.3
25.8
25.4 |
in AIC
21.9
20.9
20.8
19.9
19.8
18.8
18.8
18.3
17.8
17.4 |
AIC
946.7
947.8
947.8
948.7
948.9
949.8
939.3
927.5
940.3
940.6 |
AIC
968.6
968.6
968.6
968.6
968.6
968.6
958.0
945.8
958.0
958.0 |
param
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4 |
Fine-tuning the outcome of the forward selection procedure resulted in the removal of Weather,
DoD, and AR(12), and the addition of geometric lags for Support Justice III starting at lag 4 and
Hard Line starting at lag 0 (table xx). As a result, the AIC was reduced from 946.7 to 930.3.
Final Model for South West Border Retail Prices (AIC=930.32, Obs=91)
| Interdiction
| Delay
| Estimate
| Std Error
| p-value
|
|
Intercept
AR(1)
Time Trend
Coast Guard
Support Justice III
SJIII Geom Lag
Hard Line
Hard Line: Geom Lag
Arrests/Deaths
Conjuntos II |
4
4
0
0
1
1 |
107.58
0.00
-0.37
97.26
59.36
0.57
5.72
0.87
67.69
95.46 |
15.28
0.12
0.50
55.02
25.66
0.19
4.19
0.13
23.47
40.30 |
<.0001
0.9699
0.4682
0.0809
0.0232
0.0043
0.1753
<.0001
0.0050
0.0202 |
The estimates in the table correspond to the parameters of the transfer function model
where x1 = Support Justice III, x2 = Hard Line, x3 = Arrests/Deaths of Mexican traffickers, and x4
= Conjuntos II. Thus the changes in South West Border retail prices were dynamic for Support
Justice and Hard Line, and were non-dynamic for Arrests/Deaths and Conjuntos II.
The effect of Arrests/Deaths (January 1996, February 1997, and July 1997) and Conjuntos II
(December 1998) was to increase South West Border retail prices one month later by $68 and $95
respectively.
The effect of Support Justice III (November 1991 through April 1992) was to increase wholesale
prices by $59 four months after initiation of the operation, $59(0.57) = $34 in the next month, and
$59(0.57)2 = $19 in the following month, up to an asymptote of $59/(1 – 0.57) = $137. However,
what is more evident from the figure is the subsequent exponential decline starting in September
1992.
Operation Hard Line (February 1995 through July 1997) had a similar dynamic effect while it
was in full operation from January 1996 through August 1996. The initial increase in prices was
about $6 approaching a total increase of $6/(1 – 0.87) = $46, half of which would be achieved by
the fifth month. This effect was attenuated as Hard Line ramped up (February 1995 through
December 1995) and ramped down (September 1996 through July 1997). These effects induced
an S-shape to the modeled curve from February 1995 through July 1997.
The other parameter in the model that was close to statistically significance was Coast Guard
force laydown (p=0.081). The magnitude of this parameter suggests that a unit increase in the
Coast Guard force laydown (a doubling from the 1991 figure) would increase wholesale prices by
$97, other factors held constant.
Analysis of Deterrent Events on Cocaine Movement
Characterizing Trafficker Behavior
Data from the interagency Consolidated Counterdrug Database (CCDB) was used as the indicator
of trafficker behavior in the Transit Zone. This database contains drug smuggling event data
dating back to 1991 and supports two primary types of analyses: (1) evaluations of drug flow
from areas of production to consumption countries, and (2) assessments of the performance of
counterdrug forces against that movement32.
The CCDB was founded by the Interagency Counterdrug Performance Assessment Working
Group (ICPAWG). The ICPAWGestablished in 1992 to measure the performance of
counterdrug forcesmaintained a database of known drug shipments in the transit zone whose
final destination was either the U.S. or Canada. Known events are distinguished by (1) seizure or
observation of drugs; (2) observation of activity that could not be reasonably attributed to
anything other than drug smuggling; (3) highly reliable intelligence. In 1996, the CCDB was
expanded to include events that would support Interagency Assessment of Cocaine Movement
(IACM) evaluations. In order to allow a wide spectrum of cocaine flow information, ICPAWG
accepted a higher degree of uncertainty for events inclusion in the database. This concern for
drug flow data resulted in a dramatic increase in the total number of CCDB events from 1995 to
1996 (see Figure 1). For our purposes, this modification disrupted what otherwise would be a consistently measured time-series.
Figure 1
CCDB Event Data1991 to 1999
All Purposes (ICPAWG and Flow)

* Only 9 months of data
|
Fortunately, during the transformation, ICPAWG added a field to distinguish ICPAWG events
from flow events. By examining only those events with an ICPAWG application, we constructed
a consistently defined 19911999 event data set (see Figure 2). Although there is a large loss in the number of data points that entered the flow data, the value gained by expanding the time span of the study to 1991 outweighs this loss. We felt it was particularly important to ensure the model
covered the 1994/1995 reductions in drug interdiction funding.
Figure 2
ICPAWG Only Event Data1991 to 1999

* Includes only 9 months of data
|
The ability to reach back to 1991, however, is limited to non-commercial air and maritime events.
Land, commercial air events and commercial maritime events are non-existent or, at best, sparse
prior to 1996whether ICPAWG, flow or otherwise. Excluding them from the Transit Zone data
set, nevertheless, does not seem to be problematic. The CCDB Users Guide defines commercial
events as port-to-port movements. As such, they are neither targeted nor impacted by interdiction
efforts in the transit zone, but rather, by U.S. Customs operations in the Arrival Zone. As far as
land events are concerned, the data set of events would not be large enough to conduct any
meaningful analysis of how trafficking via land conveyance in the Transit Zone has been
influenced by enforcement operations.
Events identified as 'subsequent' or 'other' movements were also excluded from our data set.
'Subsequent' movements are defined as events that originate from locations in the transit zone.
'Other' movements include shipments of any drug other than cocaine. For consistency and
integrity of the data set, we felt it appropriate to exclude these types of events.
Methodology
This section is divided into three parts. In E1.0, the dependent variable is shipments confirmed
by intelligence data. In E2.0, the dependent variable is all shipments. A short section, E3.0,
reports results when the dependent variable is the total amount shipped.
Regardless of the definition of the dependent variable, the independent variables are the same:
CYCLE1
CYCLE2
|
cosine(2 MONTH/12)
sine(2 MONTH/12)
|
Where MONTH is the month of the year,
coded 1 through 12. Taken together, the
cosine and sine functions account for
seasonality, at least so far as seasonality is
approximated by a cosine function.
|
|
VM1VM17
|
A series of seventeen dummy variables coded one when the observation
came from a specific vector/mode combination and coded zero otherwise.
|
|
TVM1TVM17
|
A series of seventeen variable created by multiplying the VM1VM17
dummy variables by time. For this purpose, time was coded as zero (the
earliest month) to one (the last month).
|
INT1
NINT1
INT2
NINT2
|
As explained earlier, for each vector/mode targeted by a specified
interdiction program, we coded an indicator variable as one when the
interdiction was on and zero when it was off. For the period when the
interdiction was on, we created a complement variable that was one in
those vector/mode combinations that were not the target of that
interdiction. INT1 is the sum of all indicator variables pertaining to border
interdictions for each vector/mode combination during each month; and
NINT1 is the sum of the complement variables for border interdiction
programs. INT2 and NINT2 are the counterparts for transit zone
interdiction programs.
|
E1.0 Analysis based on Shipments Corroborated by Intelligence
This section reports analysis that is based on shipments corroborated by intelligence. There are
three subsections. In subsection E1.1, we report a baseline model. In section E1.2, we add specific interdiction programs (and their complements) one at a time to the baseline model. A Wald test identifies programs that had statistically significant effects on trafficker behavior. Section E1.3 includes the baseline variables and the significant effects from section E1.2 in a final regression model.
There are disadvantages to incremental development of a regression model.33 Those
disadvantages notwithstanding, we adopted this incremental approach to overcome serious
collinearity problems. In short, we found it impossible to include all interdictions programs in a
single model, so we adopted a search procedure to identify the most important candidate
programs.
We adopted a liberal test of statistical significance. First, because we could predict the direction
for these interventions, we used a one-tailed test of statistical significance. Second, we adopted a critical value of P=0.10. Of course, readers who prefer a more conservative test can use their
judgment, and we provide P-values for those so inclined.
E1.1 Baseline Model: Shipments Corroborated by Intelligence
Table E1 reports regression results for the baseline model. The dependent variable is the number
of shipments by vector/mode for each month in the study. The independent variables were
identified above. The estimation procedure was a Poisson regression.
We are not much interested in the parameter estimates from this baseline model, so little
discussion is necessary. Based on the coefficients associated with the variables CYCLE1 and
CYCLE2, shipments do seem to follow a seasonal pattern. Based on the variables TVM1 through
TVM17, there appear to be linear trends, and the directions of those trends vary by vector and
mode. The parameters associated with the variables VM1 through VM17 imply that some
vector/mode combinations support more traffic than other vector/mode combinations.
The parameters associated with the remaining independent variables are of substantive interest. If border interdiction were effective, we would expect the difference between the parameters
associated with NINT1 and INT1 to be positive and statistically significant. We use similar tests
throughout this study, so the reasoning behind this inference needs to be explained. If
interdiction were effective, and if we had controlled for all other factors that affect shipping
decisions, then the parameter associated with INT1 should be negative. This implies that
traffickers ship less frequently through vector/mode combinations that are interdiction targets. If
traffickers transferred their loads to vector/modes that were not targeted by interdiction, then the parameters associated with NINT1 should be positive. Thus, the value of the parameter
associated with NINT1 minus the value of the parameter associated with INT1 should be positive. We adopt a less demanding test, however. Quite possibly, we have not controlled sufficiently for underlying trends, so the parameter associated with INT1 could be positive, or the parameter associated with NINT2 could be negative, even though interdiction was effective. The more
lenient test is that the difference between the two parameter estimates be positive, because this
implies a relative shift from vector/modes that are targeted by interdiction to vector/modes that
are not targeted by interdiction. This is the test used throughout this report.
The difference between the parameter estimates for NINT1 and INT1 is negative, but it does not
approach statistical significance. If transit area interdiction were effective, we would expect the
difference between the parameters associated with NINT2 and INT2 to be positive and
statistically significant. That difference is positive but not statistically significant (P=0.17). If this were the only evidence at our disposal, we would probably conclude that neither border
interdiction programs nor transit zone interdiction programs disrupted traffickers. In fact,
however, we can look at individual interdiction programs using this baseline model as
background. We do this in the next section dealing with the enhanced baseline model.
Table E1: Baseline Model based on Shipments Confirmed by Intelligence
Poisson Regression
Maximum Likelihood Estimates
|
Dependent variable
Weighting variable
Number of observations
Iterations completed
Log likelihood function
Restricted log likelihood
Chi-squared
Degrees of freedom
Significance level
|
N_SHIP_I
ONE
1836
10
2094.570
2867.591
1546.041
39
.0000000
|
|
Chi- squared = 2781.93922 | RsqP= .4479 |
|
G - squared = 2294.76503 | RsqD= .4025
|
|
|
|
Variable
|
Coefficient
|
Standard Error
|
b/St.Er.
|
P[|Z|>z]
|
Mean of X
|
|
CYCLE1
CYCLE2
TVM1
TVM2
TVM3
TVM4
TVM5
TVM6
TVM7
TVM10
TVM11
TVM12
TVM13
TVM14
TVM15
TVM16
TVM17
TVM18
TVM19
VM1
VM2
VM3
VM4
VM5
VM6
VM7
VM10
VM11
VM12
VM13
VM14
VM15
VM16
VM17
VM18
VM19
INT1
NINT1
INT2
NINT2
|
.1500526630
.9939249148E-01
1.000027673
1.441172945
.5795320633
2.090834448
.8925335561
2.690843073
1.192119176
2.495930061
3.176922259
3.251232916
1.360851818
3.962670355
3.081394984
2.804221258
2.039931377
.5890692988
2.711534100
1.378330194
1.204863240
.4172125587
1.595449154
.2099930851
1.511223572
2.549738868
3.487084848
1.473230381
1.968400011
.3229995088
1.766712630
1.110548906
.6640140747
.8061104337
2.942762471
4.534233549
.2370591623
.2541116115
.1522977365
.2756067348
|
.35806385E-01
.35873467E-01
.64202907
.35993054
.41818764
.34680529
.49700812
.40155541
1.0580415
1.2142762
.43801073
.51429727
.38985939
.41942376
.38719632
.35091487
.48421925
1.4837441
1.9247698
.35657943
.13503590
.18021664
.11891265
.20662410
.13047791
.61983533
.81259772
.27422004
.33827139
.20402925
.27230011
.23232914
.19674777
.24480057
.81782887
1.3210413
.11025857
.50608554E-01
.12019474
.62320496E-01
|
4.191
2.771
1.558
4.004
1.386
6.029
1.796
6.701
1.127
2.055
7.253
6.322
3.491
9.448
7.958
7.991
4.213
.397
1.409
3.865
8.923
2.315
13.417
1.016
11.582
4.114
4.291
5.372
5.819
1.583
6.488
4.780
3.375
3.293
3.598
3.432
2.150
5.021
1.267
4.422
|
.0000
.0056
.1193
.0001
.1658
.0000
.0725
.0000
.2599
.0398
.0000
.0000
.0005
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.6914
.1589
.0001
.0000
.0206
.0000
.3095
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.1134
.0000
.0000
.0007
.0010
.0003
.0006
.0316
.0000
.2051
.0000
|
.64376427E-13
.17360728E-13
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.12908497
1.2690632
.39215686E-01
.26851852
|
E1.2 Enhanced Baseline Model based on Shipments Confirmed by Intelligence
In this section, we begin with the baseline model, add individual interdictions, and test whether
or not those individual interdictions seem to affect traffickers. For example, to test whether
Operation Gateway caused shippers to alter their shipping procedures, we added variables
GATEWAY (turned on when and where Operation Gateway was operational) and NGATEWAY
(the complement of GATEWAY) to the baseline model.34 If Gateway were effective, we would
expect the parameter associated with GATEWAY to be negative (fewer shipments) and the
parameter associated with NGATEWAY to be positive (more shipments). In fact, we infer the
presence of deterrence when the parameter associated with NGATEWAY minus the parameter
associated with GATEWAY is positive and statistically significant. This difference implies a
relative shift in trafficking from where Operation Gateway was operational to where it was not.
We used a standard Wald test to determine statistical significance. Because we could predict
direction, we employed one-tailed test and an . value of 0.10. Table E2 summarizes our findings.
Table E2: Adding Interdictions Programs to the Baseline ModelShipments Confirmed with Intelligence
| |
Contrast
from Adding
Variables
|
P Value
|
Contrast from
Regression
|
P-Value
|
Hard Line
Two Dozen
Zorro II
Gateway
White Shark I
White Shark II
Frontier Shield
Border Shield
Gulf Shield
White Shark III
Brass Ring
River Sweep
Frontier Lance
Conjuntos I and II
|
0.35
1.43
0.43
0.29
0.60
0.95
0.53
***
1.26
***
0.27
0.72
0.21
0.26
|
0.08
0.08
0.02
0.06
0.02
0.14
0.09
***
0.00
***
0.53
0.00
0.61
0.58
|
0.27
1.01
0.28
0.09
0.70
1.21
1.21
0.62
|
0.14
0.17
0.07
0.39
0.12
0.00
0.00
0.01
|
Column 1 identifies the interdiction programs considered in this study. The second column
reports the contrast (e.g. the difference between the NGATEWAY parameter and the GATEWAY
parameter), and the third column reports the P-value from the Wald test. We will discuss
columns four and five in section E1.3.
For two programs (marked with ***), we could not compute the Wald statistic, presumably
because the data were too sparse to provide estimates. For six of the interventions, the contrast
was in the expected direction (positive) and was significant at p<0.10. These tests suggest that
interdiction has caused traffickers to shift vectors and modes. However, the parameters for White
Shark I and Frontier Shield are negative and might be judged to be statistically significant if we
had not employed a one-tailed test. Although the evidence would seem to be on the side of
interdictions effectiveness at disrupting trafficker behaviors, the evidence is equivocal. A
regression analysis may be more convincing.
E1.3 Enhanced Regression Model based on Shipments Confirmed by Intelligence
Building on the results reported in section AE1.2, we identified interdiction programs that were
significant (from Table AE2) and added them as a group to the baseline regression. As before,
we tested for the statistical significance of the contrast using a Wald test. The regression results appear as Table E3.
The values and statistical significance of the contrasts are most important to this study. They are summarized in table E2. Column four reports the value of the contrast. Column five reports the
P-value of the Wald test.
Four of the interdiction programs seem to have caused traffickers to change their shipment
methods. (We combined Border Shield and Gulf Shield into single variables. Otherwise, when
included treated separately in the same regression, they were collinear.) Two programs still have
unexpected negative signs, but neither is statistically significant. We might accept this as modest
evidence in favor of a finding that interdiction has disrupted trafficking behavior. Next, we repeat the analysis with a different dependent variable, all known shipments regardless of whether or not they had intelligence verification.
Table E3: Adding Interdiction Programs to the Baseline RegressionsShipments Confirmed with Intelligence
Poisson Regression
Maximum Likelihood Estimates
|
Dependent variable
Weighting variable
Number of observations
Iterations completed
Log likelihood function
Restricted log likelihood
Chi-squared
Degrees of freedom
Significance level
|
N_SHIP_I
ONE
1836
10
2004.052
2867.591
1727.077
53
.0000000
|
|
Chi- squared = 2489.64066 | RsqP= .5059 |
|
G - squared = 2113.72905 |
RsqD= .4497
|
|
|
|
Variable
|
Coefficient
|
Standard Error
|
b/St.Er.
|
P[|Z|>z]
|
Mean of X
|
|
CYCLE1
CYCLE2
TVM1
TVM2
TVM3
TVM4
TVM5
TVM6
TVM7
TVM10
TVM11
TVM12
TVM13
|
.1467272238
.1128102009
2.317709869
.6710934168
.2851088598
1.306475995
.1599118158E-02
2.013531988
2.576579200
4.084014116
5.972371563
5.069425468
2.706757319
|
.37023890E-01
.36935424E-01
.72780797
.40582667
.47691572
.40511684
.56243747
.45728761
1.1860748
1.3130657
.67191322
.60073563
.46348191
|
3.963
3.054
3.185
1.654
.598
3.225
.003
4.403
2.172
3.110
8.889
8.439
5.840
|
.0001
.0023
.0015
.0982
.5500
.0013
.9977
.0000
.0298
.0019
.0000
.0000
.0000
|
.64376427E-13
.17360728E-13
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
|
|
|
Variable
|
Coefficient
|
Standard Error
|
b/St.Er.
|
P[|Z|>z]
|
Mean of X
|
|
TVM14
TVM15
TVM16
TVM17
TVM18
TVM19
VM1
VM2
VM3
VM4
VM5
VM6
VM7
VM10
VM11
VM12
VM13
VM14
VM15
VM16
VM17
VM18
VM19
INT1
NINT1
INT2
NINT2
TWODOZ
NTWODOZ
HARDLNE
WHITESI
BORGLF
RIVSWP
NHARDLNE
NWHI
NBORGLF
NRIVSWP
GATEWAY
NGATEWAY
SHIELD
NSHIELD
|
5.900911540
4.853254423
4.517353018
6.425450913
3.172937606
4.400938468
1.789159972
1.026773521
.1874096669
1.441687835
.1022476886E-01
1.387924735
2.991682453
4.000411548
2.628244836
2.672704838
.7768329996
2.570984579
1.775501144
1.317490937
2.500443009
3.754525590
5.158771869
.3110889125
.1734423999
.1931763316
.2468156891
.5689010411
.4371016851
.4138179349
.1499855917E-01
1.570947893
1.754805825
.1457431178
.7087233715E-01
.3593930368
1.135668465
.7474104510
.4683676083
.5499718757E-01
.6453586667
|
.50641212
.46951719
.43423327
.97502496
1.9466202
2.1151093
.39040177
.14573128
.19629061
.12805624
.22403601
.13901570
.67654087
.86420724
.37570632
.37636039
.23028723
.31038373
.26428070
.22926556
.43726432
1.0067593
1.4304390
.14734896
.86683244E-01
.30654103
.17713148
1.0085545
.25636325
.24365322
.40493803
.46641634
.39191370
.95320297E-01
.29071813
.14713832
.31593503
.33763610
.29670468
.40743396
.27373697
|
11.652
10.337
10.403
6.590
1.630
2.081
4.583
7.046
.955
11.258
.046
9.984
4.422
4.629
6.995
7.101
3.373
8.283
6.718
5.747
5.718
3.729
3.606
2.111
2.001
.630
1.393
.564
1.705
1.698
.037
3.368
4.478
1.529
.244
2.443
3.595
2.214
1.579
.135
2.358
|
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.1031
.0375
.0000
.0000
.3397
.0000
.9636
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0007
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0002
.0003
.0348
.0454
.5286
.1635
.5727
.0882
.0894
.9705
.0008
.0000
.1263
.8074
.0146
.0003
.0269
.1144
.8926
.0184
|
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.28867102E-01
.12854031
.10893246E-01
.63180828E-01
.21786492E-02
.92592593E-02
.31045752E-01
.70806100E-02
.37037037E-01
.25054466E-01
.24673203
.11328976
.59259259
.18790850
.26143791E-01
.19607843
.65359477E-02
.21241830E-01
|
E2.0 Analysis Based on All Known Shipments
Section E1 was based on an analysis of movements for which there were corroborating
intelligence reports. In this section, we use data based on all sources. Otherwise, this section has the same structure as the last one.
E2.1 Baseline Model: All Shipments
The first step is to develop a baseline model. The regression results are reported in Table E4.
The baseline model requires little discussion, because it raises few new issues that were not
discussed in section E1.1. However, in this model, the summary interdiction variable have the expected sign and both are statistically significantat P = 0.025 for transit zone interdictions and at 0.01 for border interdictions.
Statistical modeling based on all movement events gives a different picture of how interdiction
disrupts traffickers. We are uncertain about the reasons for these differences. Both have unique
biases, but the biases associated with “all known movements” would seem to work against the
findings reported here. At any rate, we now ask what happens as we add individual interdiction
programs (and their complements) to the baseline model.
Table E4: Baseline Model based on All Shipments
Poisson Regression
Maximum Likelihood Estimates
|
Dependent variable
Weighting variable
Number of observations
Iterations completed
Log likelihood function
Restricted log likelihood
Chi-squared
Degrees of freedom
Significance level
|
N_SHIP
ONE
1836
9
2705.301
3769.244
2127.886
39
.0000000
|
|
Chi- squared = 3101.22822
| RsqP= .4916 |
G - squared = 2798.30398
|
RsqD= .4320
|
|
|
|
Variable
|
Coefficient
|
Standard Error
|
b/St.Er.
|
P[|Z|>z]
|
Mean of X
|
|
CYCLE1
CYCLE2
TVM1
TVM2
TVM3
TVM4
TVM5
TVM6
TVM7
TVM10
TVM11
TVM12
TVM13
TVM14
TVM15
TVM16
TVM17
TVM18
TVM19
VM1
VM2
VM3
VM4
VM5
VM6
VM7
VM10
VM11
VM12
VM13
VM14
VM15
VM16
VM17
VM18
VM19
INT1
NINT1
INT2
NINT2
|
.7314810134E-01
.8670401309E-01
3.627079071
.5451966037
.4391948251
2.151267528
.6553497859
2.259043312
.3734234213
2.275626220
2.967443231
3.135859298
.3681322160
2.894876567
2.955244816
2.392078334
1.925173109
.7304181048
.8143265570
1.940373885
1.255213076
.7314593647
1.977469640
.4933610021
1.908320234
1.359187413
3.064293462
1.361807101
1.732672415
.3930657130
1.025271643
.8483104009
.1972843768
.1920736328
2.137837711
3.233501541
.3307793842
.1173706063
.5948420239E-01
.2529261888
|
.28468042E-01
.28334912E-01
.42099198
.26527633
.31534570
.26936526
.37048270
.28231601
.65712883
.95894578
.39907456
.42692994
.31031886
.33906906
.31407062
.27723297
.37624410
.92093838
1.4687860
.29745830
.11661263
.14783769
.96742995E-01
.17023955
.10094571
.37306002
.66556793
.26034184
.29415610
.15841300
.21884004
.20040433
.16042235
.18523863
.53128271
.89457981
.88126654E-01
.38560643E-01
.94865464E-01
.46650226E-01
|
2.569
3.060
8.616
2.055
1.393
7.986
1.769
8.002
.568
2.373
7.436
7.345
1.186
8.538
9.409
8.628
5.117
.793
.554
6.523
10.764
4.948
20.440
2.898
18.904
3.643
4.604
5.231
5.890
2.481
4.685
4.233
1.230
1.037
4.024
3.615
3.753
3.044
.627
5.422
|
.0102
.0022
.0000
.0399
.1637
.0000
.0769
.0000
.5699
.0176
.0000
.0000
.2355
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.4277
.5793
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0038
.0000
.0003
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0131
.0000
.0000
.2188
.2998
.0001
.0003
.0002
.0023
.5306
.0000
|
.64376427E-13
.17360728E-13
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.12908497
1.2690632
.39215686E-01
.26851852
|
E2.2 Enhanced Baseline Model based on All Shipments
The next step is now familiar. We start with the baseline model, add individual interdiction
programs to that model, and test for the statistical significance of these added programs. Findings
are summarized in Table E5, which is the counterpart to Table E2. Differences arise because of
the change in the dependent variables, from shipments with intelligence in Table E2 to all
shipments in Table E5.
Eight individual programs now pass the test for statistical significance. That is, for those eight, the contrast is positive and statistically significant at better than P=0.10. We find a perverse negative contrast (statistically significant) in two other programs.
E2.3 Enhanced Regression Model based on All Shipments
As a final step, we estimated a regression model that included all the variables from the baseline
model and all the variables that resulted in statistically significant contrast as reported in table E6. Table E5 summarizes the Wald tests in columns four and five.
Seven of the eight contrasts that were positive and significant in section E2.2 remain positive and significant in these regressions. The eight remains positive but does not quite reach statistical significance. Although two of the contrasts are negative, neither is statistically significant. These regression results seem to lend weight to a conclusions that interdiction has caused traffickers to
shift activity away from vectors/modes that are the focus of interdiction to vectors/modes that are
not targets.
Table E5: Adding Interdictions Programs to the Baseline ModelAll Shipments
| |
Contrast
from Adding
Variables
|
P Value
|
Contrast from
Regression
|
P-Value
|
Hard Line
Two Dozen
Zorro II
Gateway
White Shark I
White Shark II
Frontier Shield
Border Shield*
Gulf Shield*
White Shark III
Brass Ring
River Sweep
Frontier Lance
Conjuntos I and II
|
0.69
2.08
0.24
0.21
0.44
0.97
0.34
3.01
1.33
1.14
0.08
1.03
0.52
0.11
|
0.00
0.02
0.15
0.07
0.02
0.04
0.15
0.01
0.00
0.03
0.80
0.00
0.08
0.38
|
0.67
1.69
0.20
0.08
0.32
0.57
0.93
0.93
0.97
0.91
0.43
|
0.00
0.05
0.09
0.36
0.50
0.20
0.00
0.00
0.06
0.00
0.13
|
Table E6: Adding Interdiction Programs to the Baseline RegressionsAll Shipments
Poisson Regression
Maximum Likelihood Estimates
|
Dependent variable
Weighting variable
Number of observations
Iterations completed
Log likelihood function
Restricted log likelihood
Chi-squared
Degrees of freedom
Significance level
|
N_SHIP
ONE
1836
9
2612.317
3769.244
2313.854
59
.0000000
|
Chi- squared = 2845.29768 RsqP= .5335
G - squared = 2612.33601 RsqD= .4697
|
|
|
|
Variable
|
Coefficient
|
Standard Error
|
b/St.Er.
|
P[|Z|>z]
|
Mean of X
|
|
CYCLE1
CYCLE2
TVM1
TVM2
TVM3
TVM4
TVM5
TVM6
TVM7
TVM10
TVM11
TVM12
TVM13
TVM14
TVM15
TVM16
TVM17
TVM18
TVM19
VM1
VM2
VM3
VM4
VM5
VM6
VM7
VM10
VM11
VM12
VM13
VM14
VM15
VM16
VM17
VM18
VM19
INT1
NINT1
INT2
|
.5640615585E-01
.1479483199
4.457587986
.2748442050E-01
.9475163611E-02
1.704266089
.2329633852
1.818364138
.9845031877
2.868978150
4.857922644
4.013029303
.9047154776
3.732514166
3.751430735
3.175529131
4.573977668
2.215618002
1.437452861
2.267235978
1.116537858
.6012671359
1.900828964
.3755144049
1.833650258
1.542086790
3.204949585
2.164431723
2.067059149
.2209788722
1.380887350
1.174544739
.5175372470
1.222098927
2.609563540
3.428420810
.3706183697
.1672939725
.3707689356E-01
|
.29706813E-01
.31431251E-01
.46212290
.29681085
.34780173
.30105202
.40466252
.31311502
.69885317
.97679877
.56777459
.46922700
.34623356
.38557568
.36147027
.32569314
.65624128
1.1089964
1.5385191
.31224141
.12339469
.15548342
.10048114
.17821032
.10461724
.38847407
.67094037
.33260189
.30915981
.16793808
.23640654
.21749955
.17670733
.28433774
.60044753
.92673218
.13054511
.86117880E-01
.34592276
|
1.899
4.707
9.646
.093
.027
5.661
.576
5.807
1.409
2.937
8.556
8.552
2.613
9.680
10.378
9.750
6.970
1.998
.934
7.261
9.049
3.867
18.917
2.107
17.527
3.970
4.777
6.508
6.686
1.316
5.841
5.400
2.929
4.298
4.346
3.699
2.839
1.943
.107
|
.0576
.0000
.0000
.9262
.9783
.0000
.5648
.0000
.1589
.0033
.0000
.0000
.0090
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0000
.0457
.3501
.0000
.0000
.0001
.0000
.0351
.0000
.0001
.0000
.0000
.0000
.1882
.0000
.0000
.0034
.0000
.0000
.0002
.0045
.0521
.9146
|
.64376427E-13
.17360728E-13
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.29684096E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.58823529E-01
.26143791E-01
.84967320E-01
.76252723E-02
|
|
|
Variable
|
Coefficient
|
Standard Error
|
b/St.Er.
|
P[|Z|>z]
|
Mean of X
|
|
NINT2
TWODOZ
NTWODOZ
HARDLNE
WHITESI
WHITEII
WHITIII
BORGLF
RIVSWP
NHARDLNE
NWHI
NWHII
NWHIII
NBORGLF
NRIVSWP
GATEWAY
NGATEWAY
SHIELD
NSHIELD
FTRLANC
NFTRLANC
|
.1964373102
1.434637652
.2526764629
.7165552386
.3906454009
.6283123549
.7922272362
.9902991675
1.617492723
.4478952241E-01
.4749202867
.9528289574
.1799395180
.6261011307E-01
.7097157269
.6500331426
.4505055424
.3461122629
.2241198839
.1150491404
.3173690780
|
.15732225
1.0042811
.21213183
.19485292
.27508759
.43500540
.61166226
.32608436
.28849429
.77432264E-01
.18289456
.21420069
.13952638
.93145441E-01
.20893499
.22464778
.18734259
.41005949
.22290290
.38554620
.16936055
|
1.249
1.429
1.191
3.677
1.420
1.444
1.295
3.037
5.607
.578
2.597
4.448
1.290
.672
3.397
2.894
2.405
.844
1.005
.298
1.874
|
.2118
.1531
.2336
.0002
.1556
.1486
.1952
.0024
.0000
.5630
.0094
.0000
.1972
.5015
.0007
.0038
.0162
.3986
.3147
.7654
.0609
|
.38671024E-01
.21786492E-02
.92592593E-02
.31045752E-01
.70806100E-02
.10893246E-02
.16339869E-02
.37037037E-01
.25054466E-01
.24673203
.11328976
.17429194E-01
.26143791E-01
.59259259
.18790850
.26143791E-01
.19607843
.65359477E-02
.21241830E-01
.32679739E-02
.24509804E-01
|
E3.0 The Amount of Drugs Transported
The final part of this analysis was to treat the amount shipped as the dependent variable. For this
analysis, we excluded vectors/modes that had zero shipments. Here the question is whether or
not shipments, measured as the bulk amount of cocaine transported, changed conditional on the
number of shipments that were actually made.
We do not show details. Four of the interdiction events seemed to have reduced the bulk amount
of cocaine moving through targeted vector/mode combinations. A Fifth program almost reached
statistical significance (P=0.103). One program had a perverse negative effective. These findings
reinforce the earlier findings that were based on the number of movements.
32 CCDB Users Guide
33 A discussion of those disadvantages are technical and beyond the scope of this report. A useful
discussion appears in G. Judge, R. Hill, W. Griffiths, H. Lutkepohl, and T. Lee (1985) The Theory and Practice of Econometrics, 2nd Edition, New York, John Wiley & Sons.
34 Before these individual programs were added to the model, we subtracted the program and its complement from the construction of INT1, NINT1, INT2, and NINT2.
Last Updated: March 4, 2002