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Relative Risks and the Market for Sex: Teenagers, Sugar Daddies and HIV in Kenya

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  • Dupas, Pascaline

Abstract

An information campaign that provided Kenyan teenagers in randomly selected schools with the information that HIV prevalence was much higher among adult men and their partners than among teenage boys led to a 65% decrease in the incidence of pregnancies by adult partners among teenage girls in the treatment group relative to the comparison. This suggests a large reduction in the incidence of unprotected cross-generational sex. The information campaign did not increase pregnancies among teenage couples. These results suggest that the behavioral choices of teenagers are responsive to information on the relative risks of different varieties of a risky activity. Policies that focus only on the elimination of a risky activity and do not address risk reduction strategies may be ignoring a margin on which they can have substantial impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Dupas, Pascaline, 2005. "Relative Risks and the Market for Sex: Teenagers, Sugar Daddies and HIV in Kenya," MPRA Paper 248, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:248
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/248/1/MPRA_paper_248.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Prevention vs. Treament in HIV: Have we given prevention a chance to shine?
      by Karen Grepin in Karen Grepin's Global Health Blog on 2009-01-30 05:09:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Duflo, Esther & Glennerster, Rachel & Kremer, Michael, 2008. "Using Randomization in Development Economics Research: A Toolkit," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 61, pages 3895-3962, Elsevier.
    2. Oster, Emily, 2012. "HIV and sexual behavior change: Why not Africa?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 35-49.
    3. Duflo, Esther & Dupas, Pascaline & Kremer, Michael & Sinei, Samuel, 2006. "Education and HIV/AIDS prevention : evidence from a randomized evaluation in Western Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4024, The World Bank.

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    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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