Sexual Risk Taking among Young Adults in Cape Town - Effects of Expected Health and Income

Mintewab Bezabih (), Andréa Mannberg () and Martine Visser
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Mintewab Bezabih: University of Portsmouth
Andréa Mannberg: Department of Economics, Umeå University, Postal: S 901 87 Umeå, Sweden

No 804, Umeå Economic Studies from Umeå University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper empirically assesses links between expectations of future health and income on sexual risk taking on a sample of young adults in Cape Town, South Africa. An important contribution of the paper lies in combining a wide range of variables measuring risky sexual behavior such that the maximum information possible is extracted from, and adequate weights are attached to each measure, as opposed to previous studies that are based on individual measures or arbitrary aggregations. The findings indicate that expected income and health and future uncertainty are significant determinants of current patterns of sexual risk taking. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that reducing poverty and improving social insurance as well as reducing the taboo related to talking about HIV may constitute important issues to be addressed.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; Health risk; Risk aversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 D84 D91 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2010-04-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-cbe, nep-dev, nep-hea, nep-ltv and nep-neu
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Working Paper: Sexual Risk Taking Among Young Adults in Cape Town: Effects of Expected Health and Income (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:umnees:0804

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