Date: 2016
Type: Working Paper
Education, HIV status and risky sexual behavior : how much does the stage of the HIV epidemic matter?
Working Paper, EUI ECO, 2016/09
IORIO, Daniela, SANTAEULÀLIA-LLOPIS, Raül, Education, HIV status and risky sexual behavior : how much does the stage of the HIV epidemic matter?, EUI ECO, 2016/09 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/41364
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
We study the relationship between education and HIV status using nationally representative data from 39 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, we construct an innovative algorithm that systematically defines aggregate stages of the HIV epidemic in a comparable manner across time and across space. Second, we exploit the variation in the aggregate HIV stages in the DHS data, and find that the education gradient in HIV shows a U-shaped (positive-zero-positive) pattern over the course of the epidemic. Further, educational disparities in the number of extramarital partners are largely consistent with the evolution of the education gradient in HIV. We propose a simple theoretical model of risky sex choices that accounts for these stylized facts.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/41364
ISSN: 1725-6704
Series/Number: EUI ECO; 2016/09