HIV infections and nightlight luminosity

Pratibha Gautam and Ben Li

Economics Letters, 2021, vol. 204, issue C

Abstract: HIV epidemics in developing countries are difficult to measure because the symptoms of HIV infections are non-specific and diagnosis relies on laboratory tests. We find that the nightlight data used in Henderson et al. (2012), originally compiled for estimating GDP growth rates in developing countries, can predict HIV incidence across countries. With economic performance, urbanization, and population density held the same, there remains a significant and robust negative association between nightlight and HIV incidence. In contrast, nightlight shows no association with other common health problems in developing countries. We posit that nightlight reflects the availability of basic public goods that prevent diseases with low infectiousness. We also construct nightlight-augmented HIV incidence for 68 countries with the poorest data quality.

Keywords: Nightlight luminosity; Epidemiological incidence; HIV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 I15 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:204:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521001646

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109887

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