AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
Men’s Classified Ads and Risky Health Behaviors
AEA Papers and Proceedings
(pp. 578–583)
Abstract
Risky health behaviors are private and rarely observed. This paper introduces a novel dataset of over 170,000 men’s classified advertisements published between 1975 and 1992 in The Advocate, the largest and longest-running national LGBT magazine in the United States. Using high-frequency text data, this paper documents significant changes in the content of ads during the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, most notably a pronounced rise in the take-up of safe sex language following the first reports of AIDS. These findings offer rare insight into how perceived health risks shaped sexual behaviors during the very early years of the epidemic.Citation
Shahid, Hasan. 2026. "Men’s Classified Ads and Risky Health Behaviors." AEA Papers and Proceedings 116: 578–583. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261053Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D81 Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- I12 Health Behavior
- L82 Entertainment; Media
- M37 Advertising