The Impact of HIV/Aids on Human Capital Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa: New Evidence

Luke Chicoine, Emily Lyons and Alexia Sahue
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Emily Lyons: Bates College
Alexia Sahue: Bates College

No 13609, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The risk of AIDS-related mortality increased dramatically throughout the 1990s. This paper updates previous work by Fortson (2011) to examine the impact of mortality risk on human capital investment during the deadliest period of the pandemic. We combine Demographic Health Survey data from 30 countries, across 60 survey waves, to generate a sample of over 1,300,000 observations. Cohort-specific analysis using the updated sample yields new evidence that the negative relationship between HIV prevalence and schooling steepened as mortality risk increased. The reduction in schooling is largest for women, and along the extensive margin of the schooling decision. The findings indicate that the decline in human capital investment associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic prior to the availability of treatment was larger in magnitude than previously understood, but may be reversing rapidly as access to treatment is expanded.

Keywords: schooling; mortality risk; HIV/AIDS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I25 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-hea
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Published - published in: Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2021, 36 (6), 842-852

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Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of HIV/AIDS on human capital investment in Sub‐Saharan Africa: New evidence (2021)
Working Paper: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Human Capital Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa: New Evidence (2020)
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