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Girls’ education and HIV risk: Evidence from Uganda

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  • Alsan, Marcella M.
  • Cutler, David M.

Abstract

Uganda is widely viewed as a public health success for curtailing its HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s. The period of rapid HIV decline coincided with a dramatic rise in girls’ secondary school enrollment. We instrument for this enrollment with distance to school, conditional on a rich set of demographic and locational controls, including distance to market center. We find that girls’ enrollment in secondary education significantly increased the likelihood of abstaining from sex. Using a triple-difference estimator, we find that some of the schooling increase among young women was in response to a 1990 affirmative action policy giving women an advantage over men on University applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Alsan, Marcella M. & Cutler, David M., 2013. "Girls’ education and HIV risk: Evidence from Uganda," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 863-872.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:32:y:2013:i:5:p:863-872
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2013.06.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Yao Yao, 2022. "Fertility and HIV Risk in Africa," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 109-133, July.
    2. Miron Tequame & Nyasha Tirivayi, 2015. "Higher education and fertility: Evidence from a natural experiment in Ethiopia," CINCH Working Paper Series 1509, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health, revised Aug 2015.
    3. Baland, Jean-Marie & Aldashev, Gani, 2012. "Awareness and AIDS: A Political Economy Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 8908, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Bhandari, Aarushi & Burroway, Rebekah, 2023. "Hold the phone! A cross-national analysis of Women's education, mobile phones, and HIV infections in low- and middle-income countries, 1990–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    5. Ibrahim Kasirye, 2016. "HIV/AIDS Sero-prevalence and Socio-economic Status: Evidence from Uganda," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 28(3), pages 304-318, September.
    6. Marcella Alsan & Marianne Wanamaker, 2018. "Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 407-455.
    7. Durevall, Dick & Lindskog, Annika & George, Gavin, 2015. "Education and HIV incidence among young women: causation or selection?," Working Papers in Economics 638, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    8. Julia Behrman, 2015. "Does Schooling Affect Women’s Desired Fertility? Evidence From Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 787-809, June.
    9. Terris-Prestholt, Fern & Windmeijer, Frank, 2016. "How to sell a condom? The impact of demand creation tools on male and female condom sales in resource limited settings," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 107-120.
    10. Yao Yao, 2022. "Fertility and HIV Risk in Africa," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 109-133, July.
    11. Behrman, Jere R. & Xiong, Yanyan & Zhang, Junsen, 2015. "Cross-sectional schooling-health associations misrepresented causal schooling effects on adult health and health-related behaviors: Evidence from the Chinese Adults Twins Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 190-197.
    12. Bryan McCannon & Zachary Rodriguez, 2016. "A Lasting Effect of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Orphans and Pro-Social Behavior," Working Papers 16-10, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    13. Brendan Maughan-Brown & Neil D. Lloyd & Jacob Bor & Atheendar S. Venkataramani, 2015. "Increasing access to HIV testing: Impacts on equity of coverage and uptake from a national campaign in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 145, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    14. Tsai, Alexander C. & Venkataramani, Atheendar S., 2015. "The causal effect of education on HIV stigma in Uganda: Evidence from a natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 37-46.
    15. Dursun, Bahadır & Cesur, Resul & Mocan, Naci, 2018. "The Impact of Education on Health Outcomes and Behaviors in a Middle-Income, Low-Education Country," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-114.
    16. Behrman, Julia Andrea, 2015. "The effect of increased primary schooling on adult women's HIV status in Malawi and Uganda: Universal Primary Education as a natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 108-115.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    HIV/AIDS; Education policy; Gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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