Coping with Risk: Negative Shocks, Transactional Sex, and the Limitations of Conditional Cash Transfers
Coping with Risk: Negative Shocks, Transactional Sex, and the Limitations of Conditional Cash Transfers
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.06.006
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发表时间：
2019-09-01
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Dow, William H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gong, Erick;de Walque, Damien;Dow, William H.
变性是一种重要的风险应对机制，也是撒哈拉以南非洲艾滋病毒/艾滋病流行病的主要促成因素。我们使用的数据来自坦桑尼亚农村地区的有条件现金转移支付（CCT）实验，该实验旨在通过将性传播感染（STI）检测阴性作为转移条件来激励更安全的性行为。对于女性，我们发现，以粮食不安全衡量的负面冲击导致性传播感染增加36%，并增加了自我报告的危险性行为。我们发现，无论是性传播感染或自我报告的男性性行为的负面冲击没有显着的影响。这种CCT设计似乎并没有减轻我们在女性中记录的对冲击的行为反应。我们认为，这一发现可以解释为约束性的信贷约束和相对罕见的时间的CCT。当妇女遭受负面冲击时，现金需求是立即的，而与有条件现金援助有关的转移支付是在特定时间点支付的。如果妇女在冲击期间无法获得信贷，她们可能会求助于性交易，即使她们面临着不这样做的金钱激励。(C)2019 Elsevier B. V.版权所有。
Transactional sex is an important risk-coping mechanism and a leading contributor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. We use data from a conditional cash transfer (CCT) experiment in rural Tanzania designed to incentivize safer sexual behavior by conditioning transfers on testing negative for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For women, we find that negative shocks measured by food insecurity lead to a 36% increase in STIs and increases in self-reported risky sexual behavior. We find no significant effects of negative shocks on either STIs or self-reported sexual behavior for men. This CCT design did not appear to mitigate the behavioral response to shocks that we document in women. We propose that this finding can be explained by binding credit constraints and the relatively infrequent timing of the CCTs. When women experience a negative shock, cash needs are immediate, while transfers linked to a CCT are paid out in a specific point in time. If women are unable to access credit during a shock, they may resort to transactional sex even if they face monetary incentives to do otherwise. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.