The Impact of Positive Income Shocks on Risky Sexual Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Zachary Wagner; Erick Gong; Damien de Walque; William H Dow

doi:10.1007/s10461-016-1524-5

The Impact of Positive Income Shocks on Risky Sexual Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

AIDS Behav. 2017 Mar;21(3):650-654. doi: 10.1007/s10461-016-1524-5.

Authors

Zachary Wagner¹, Erick Gong², Damien de Walque³, William H Dow⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA. zwagner@berkeley.edu.
² Department of Economics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, USA.
³ Development Research Group, The World Bank, Washington, USA.
⁴ School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

PMID: 27553029
DOI: 10.1007/s10461-016-1524-5

Abstract

In this paper, we exploit a lottery in Tanzania, which randomly assigned eligible participants to receive $100 cash grants. The randomized nature of the lottery allows us to estimate the causal impact of positive income shocks on risky sexual behavior. We found that winning the lottery led men to have 0.28 (95 % CI 0.14, 0.55) more sexual partners and to a 0.21 (95 % CI 0.01-0.4) increase in the probability of unprotected sex with a non-primary partner relative to a control group of eligible non-winners. We found no significant effect of winning the lottery on the sexual behavior of women.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; Income shocks; Lottery; Risky sexual behavior; Tanzania.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Adult
Female
HIV Infections* / prevention & control
HIV Infections* / transmission
Humans
Income*
Male
Outcome Assessment, Health Care
Risk
Risk-Taking*
Sex Factors
Sexual Behavior / statistics & numerical data*
Sexual Partners
Tanzania
Unsafe Sex