Compensating Wage Differentials and AIDS Risk

Jeffrey DeSimone and Edward J. Schumacher

No 10861, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine the effect of HIV/AIDS infection risks on the earnings of registered nurses (RNs) and other health care workers by combining data on metropolitan statistical area (MSA) AIDS prevalence rates with annual 1987 --2001 Current Population Survey (CPS) and quadrennial 1988 --2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (SRN) data. Holding constant wages of control groups that are likely not exposed to AIDS risks and group-specific MSA fixed effects, a 10 percent increase in the AIDS rate raises RN earnings by about 0.8 percent in post-1992 samples, when AIDS rates were falling but a more comprehensive categorization of AIDS was used by the CDC. AIDS wage differentials are much larger for RNs and non-nursing health practitioners than for other nursing and health care workers, suggesting that this differential represents compensation paid for job-related exposure to potentially HIV-infected blood.

JEL-codes: I11 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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