IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mlb/wpaper/2001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Impact of AIDS Treatment on Savings and Human Capital Investment in Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Victoria Baranov

    (Department of Economics, University of Melbourne)

  • Hans-Peter Kohler

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Antiretroviral therapy (ART), a treatment for AIDS, is rapidly increasing life expectancy throughout Africa. A longer life expectancy increases the value of human capital investment, though the effect on savings is theoretically ambiguous. This paper uses spatial and temporal variation in ART availability to evaluate the impact of ART provision on savings and investment. We find that ART availability significantly increases savings, expenditures on children, and children's schooling, particularly among HIV-negative individuals. These results are not driven by the direct health effects of treatment or reductions in caretaking responsibilities, but rather by improving perceptions of self-reported mortality risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Victoria Baranov & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2015. "The Impact of AIDS Treatment on Savings and Human Capital Investment in Malawi," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 2001, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:2001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1434547/2001VBaranovEduc_Draft9.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Philippe Aghion & Diego Comin & Peter Howitt & Isabel Tecu, 2016. "When Does Domestic Savings Matter for Economic Growth?," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 64(3), pages 381-407, August.
    3. Adrienne M. Lucas & Nicholas L. Wilson, 2013. "Adult Antiretroviral Therapy and Child Health: Evidence from Scale-Up in Zambia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 456-461, May.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson, 2007. "Disease and Development: The Effect of Life Expectancy on Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 925-985, December.
    5. Gil Shapira, 2017. "How Subjective Beliefs about HIV Infection Affect Life-Cycle Fertility: Evidence from Rural Malawi," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(3), pages 680-718.
    6. Matteo Cervellati & Uwe Sunde, 2013. "Life Expectancy, Schooling, and Lifetime Labor Supply: Theory and Evidence Revisited," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(5), pages 2055-2086, September.
    7. Nicholas Wilson & Wentao Xiong & Christine Mattson, 2011. "Is Sex Like Driving? Risk Compensation Associated with Randomized Male Circumcision in Kisumu, Kenya," Center for Development Economics 2011-09, Department of Economics, Williams College, revised Jan 2012.
    8. Baranov, Victoria & Bennett, Daniel & Kohler, Hans-Peter, 2015. "The indirect impact of antiretroviral therapy: Mortality risk, mental health, and HIV-negative labor supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 195-211.
    9. Ruben Castro & Jere Behrman & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2015. "Perception of HIV risk and the quantity and quality of children: the case of rural Malawi," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 113-132, January.
    10. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    11. Emily Oster & Ira Shoulson & E. Ray Dorsey, 2012. "Limited Life Expectancy, Human Capital and Health Investments: Evidence from Huntington Disease," NBER Working Papers 17931, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Harsha Thirumurthy & Joshua Graff Zivin & Markus Goldstein, 2008. "The Economic Impact of AIDS Treatment: Labor Supply in Western Kenya," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(3), pages 511-552.
    13. Oster, Emily, 2012. "HIV and sexual behavior change: Why not Africa?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 35-49.
    14. David Evans & Edward Miguel, 2007. "Orphans and schooling in africa: a longitudinal analysis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(1), pages 35-57, February.
    15. Emily Oster & M. Bryce Millett, 2010. "Do Call Centers Promote School Enrollment? Evidence from India," NBER Working Papers 15922, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Alexander A. Weinreb & Patrick Gerland & Peter Fleming, 2008. "Hotspots and Coldspots: Household and village-level variation in orphanhood prevalence in rural Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(32), pages 1217-1248.
    17. Adeline Delavande, 2014. "Probabilistic Expectations in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 1-20, August.
    18. Raul Santaeulalia-Llopis, 2008. "Aggregate Effect of AIDS on Development," 2008 Meeting Papers 533, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Fogel, Robert W, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 369-395, June.
    20. Susan Godlonton & Rebecca L. Thornton, 2013. "Learning from Others' HIV Testing: Updating Beliefs and Responding to Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 439-444, May.
    21. Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2010. "On the existence of the maximum likelihood estimates in Poisson regression," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 310-312, May.
    22. Philip Anglewicz & Jimi Adams & Francis Obare & Hans-Peter Kohler & Susan Watkins, 2009. "The Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project 2004-06," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 20(21), pages 503-540.
    23. Friedman, Willa Helterline, 2018. "Antiretroviral drug access and behavior change," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 392-411.
    24. Seema Jayachandran & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2009. "Life Expectancy and Human Capital Investments: Evidence from Maternal Mortality Declines," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 349-397.
    25. Andrew J Tatem & Abdisalan M Noor & Craig von Hagen & Antonio Di Gregorio & Simon I Hay, 2007. "High Resolution Population Maps for Low Income Nations: Combining Land Cover and Census in East Africa," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(12), pages 1-8, December.
    26. Harold Alderman & Jere Behrman & Hans-Peter Kohler & John A. Maluccio & Susan Watkins, 2001. "Attrition in Longitudinal Household Survey Data," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 5(4), pages 79-124.
    27. Andrew Tatem & Catherine Linard, 2011. "Population mapping of poor countries," Nature, Nature, vol. 474(7349), pages 36-36, June.
    28. Lammers, J. & Meijdam, A.C. & Verbon, H.A.A., 2007. "HIV/AIDS Contamination Risk, Savings and the Welfare Effects of Diagnostic Testing," Discussion Paper 2007-50, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    29. Cally Ardington & Till Bärnighausen & Anne Case & Alicia Menendez, 2012. "The Economic Consequences of Death in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 91, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    30. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2011. "poisson: Some convergence issues," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(2), pages 215-225, June.
    31. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2007. "Inverse probability weighted estimation for general missing data problems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1281-1301, December.
    32. Fafchamps, Marcel & Pender, John, 1997. "Precautionary Saving, Credit Constraints, and Irreversible Investment: Theory and Evidence from Semiarid India," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 15(2), pages 180-194, April.
    33. Becker, Gary S & Tomes, Nigel, 1979. "An Equilibrium Theory of the Distribution of Income and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1153-1189, December.
    34. Kalipeni, Ezekiel & Ghosh, Jayati, 2007. "Concern and practice among men about HIV/AIDS in low socioeconomic income areas of Lilongwe, Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 1116-1127, March.
    35. Yoram Ben-Porath, 1967. "The Production of Human Capital and the Life Cycle of Earnings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75, pages 352-352.
    36. Hansen, Casper Worm, 2013. "Life expectancy and human capital: Evidence from the international epidemiological transition," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1142-1152.
    37. de Walque, Damien & Kazianga, Harounan & Over, Mead, 2010. "Antiretroviral therapy awareness and risky sexual behaviors : evidence from Mozambique," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5486, The World Bank.
    38. Rebecca L. Thornton, 2008. "The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1829-1863, December.
    39. Jie Zhang & Junsen Zhang, 2005. "The Effect of Life Expectancy on Fertility, Saving, Schooling and Economic Growth: Theory and Evidence," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(1), pages 45-66, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Baranov, Victoria & Bennett, Daniel & Kohler, Hans-Peter, 2015. "The indirect impact of antiretroviral therapy: Mortality risk, mental health, and HIV-negative labor supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 195-211.
    2. Bloom, David E. & Kuhn, Michael & Prettner, Klaus, 2018. "Health and Economic Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 11939, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Thornton, Rebecca L., 2012. "HIV testing, subjective beliefs and economic behavior," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 300-313.
    4. Strulik, Holger & Werner, Katharina, 2014. "Elite education, mass education, and the transition to modern growth," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 205, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    5. Luke Chicoine & Emily Lyons & Alexia Sahue, 2021. "The impact of HIV/AIDS on human capital investment in Sub‐Saharan Africa: New evidence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(6), pages 842-852, September.
    6. Mohammad Mainul Hoque & Elizabeth M. King & Claudio E. Montenegro & Peter F. Orazem, 2019. "Revisiting the relationship between longevity and lifetime education: global evidence from 919 surveys," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 551-589, April.
    7. Annarita Baldanzi & Klaus Prettner & Paul Tscheuschner, 2019. "Longevity-induced vertical innovation and the tradeoff between life and growth," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1293-1313, October.
    8. Hoque,Mohammad Mainul & King,Elizabeth M. & Montenegro,Claudio E. & Orazem,Peter F., 2017. "Longevity and lifetime education : global evidence from 919 surveys," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8175, The World Bank.
    9. Lekfuangfu, Warn N., 2022. "Mortality risk, perception, and human capital investments: The legacy of landmines in Cambodia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Cohen, Daniel & Leker, Laura, 2014. "Health and Education: Another Look with the Proper Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 9940, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. David E. Bloom & Michael Kuhn & Klaus Prettner, 2022. "Modern Infectious Diseases: Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 85-131, March.
    12. Hoque, Mohammad Mainul & King, Elizabeth M. & Montenegro, Claudio E. & Orazem, Peter F., 2020. "Life Expectancy at Birth and Lifetime Education and Earnings," ISU General Staff Papers 202009010700001121, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Lucas, Adrienne M. & Chidothe, Margaret & Wilson, Nicholas L., 2019. "Effects of adult health interventions at scale on children’s schooling: Evidence from antiretroviral therapy in Zambia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 107-120.
    14. Friedman, Willa Helterline, 2018. "Antiretroviral drug access and behavior change," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 392-411.
    15. Weil, David N., 2014. "Health and Economic Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 3, pages 623-682, Elsevier.
    16. Hansen, Casper Worm & Lønstrup, Lars, 2011. "Life expectancy and income: The Ben-Porath mechanism revisited," Discussion Papers on Economics 3/2011, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    17. Annarita BALDANZI & Alberto BUCCI & Klaus PRETTNER, 2016. "The Effects of Health Investments on Human Capital and R&D-Driven Economic Growth," Departmental Working Papers 2016-17, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    18. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    19. Holger Strulik & Katharina Werner, 2016. "50 is the new 30—long-run trends of schooling and retirement explained by human aging," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 165-187, June.
    20. Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Kotschy, Rainer & Prettner, Klaus & Schünemann, Johannes, 2018. "Health and Economic Growth: Reconciling the Micro and Macro Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11940, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life Expectancy; Human Capital Investment; Savings; HIV/AIDS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:2001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dandapani Lokanathan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.