The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status
Rebecca L. Thornton
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| Article Citation |
Thornton, Rebecca L. 2008. "The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status." American Economic Review, 98(5): 1829–63.
DOI:10.1257/aer.98.5.1829
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| Abstract |
This paper evaluates an experiment in which individuals in rural Malawi
were randomly assigned monetary incentives to learn their HIV results after
being tested. Distance to the HIV results centers was also randomly assigned.
Without any incentive, 34 percent of the participants learned their HIV results.
However, even the smallest incentive doubled that share. Using the randomly
assigned incentives and distance from results centers as instruments for the
knowledge of HIV status, sexually active HIV-positive individuals who learned
their results are three times more likely to purchase condoms two months later
than sexually active HIV-positive individuals who did not learn their results;
however, HIV-positive individuals who learned their results purchase only two
additional condoms than those who did not. There is no significant effect of
learning HIV-negative status on the purchase of condoms. (JEL I12, O15)
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| Article Full-Text Access |
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| Additional Materials |
Download Data Set
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| Authors |
Thornton, Rebecca L. (U MI)
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| JEL Classifications |
I12: Health Production
O15: Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
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