When Knowledge Is Not Enough: HIV/AIDS Information and Risky Behavior In Botswana

Taryn Dinkelman, James Levinsohn and Rolang Majelantle
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Rolang Majelantle: Department of Population Studies University of Botswana

No 553, Working Papers from Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan

Abstract: The spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still fueled by ignorance in many parts of the world. Filling in knowledge gaps, particularly between men and women, is considered key to preventing future infections and to reducing female vulnerabilities to the disease. However, such knowledge is arguably only a necessary condition for targeting these objectives. In this paper, we describe the extent to which HIV/AIDS knowledge is correlated with less risky sexual behavior. We ask: even when there are no substantial knowledge gaps between men and women, do we still observe sex-specific differentials in sexual behavior that would increase vulnerability to infection? We use data from two recent household surveys in Botswana to address this question. We show that even when men and women have very similar types of knowledge, they have different probabilities of reporting safe sex. Our findings are consistent with the existence of non-informational barriers to behavioral change, some of which appear to be sex-specific. The descriptive exercise in this paper suggests that it may be overly optimistic to hope for reductions in risky behavior through the channel of HIV-information provision alone.

JEL-codes: I18 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-cbe, nep-hea and nep-knm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: When Knowledge is not Enough: HIV/AIDS Information and Risky Behavior in Botswana (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mie:wpaper:553

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