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Economic booms and risky sexual behavior: Evidence from Zambian copper mining cities

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  • Wilson, Nicholas

Abstract

Existing studies suggest that individual and household level economic shocks affect the demand for and supply of risky sex. However, little evidence exists on the effects of an aggregate shock on equilibrium risky sexual behavior. This paper examines the effects of the early twenty-first century copper boom on risky sexual behavior in Zambian copper mining cities. The results suggest that the copper boom substantially reduced rates of transactional sex and multiple partnerships in copper mining cities. These effects were partly concentrated among young adults and copper boom induced in-migration to mining cities appears to have contributed to these reductions.

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  • Wilson, Nicholas, 2012. "Economic booms and risky sexual behavior: Evidence from Zambian copper mining cities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 797-812.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:31:y:2012:i:6:p:797-812
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.07.007
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    Cited by:

    1. Pelle Ahlerup & Thushyanthan Baskaran & Arne Bigsten, 2020. "Gold Mining and Education: A Long-run Resource Curse in Africa?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1745-1762, July.
    2. Anja Tolonen, 2019. "Endogenous Gender Roles: Evidence from Africa’s Gold Mining Industry," OxCarre Working Papers 209, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    3. de Walque, Damien & Dow, William H. & Gong, Erick, 2014. "Coping with risk : the effects of shocks on reproductive health and transactional sex in rural Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6751, The World Bank.
    4. Ralph de Haas & Steven Poelhekke, 2016. "Mining Matters: Natural Resource Extraction and Local Business Constraints," CESifo Working Paper Series 6198, CESifo.
    5. Beleche, Trinidad & Cintina, Inna, 2018. "Fracking and risky behaviors: Evidence from Pennsylvania," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 69-82.
    6. Wilson Nicholas, 2019. "The World’s Oldest Profession? Employment-Age Profiles from the Transactional Sex Market," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Rodríguez-Puello, Gabriel & Rickardsson, Jonna, 2024. "Spatial Diffusion of Economic Shocks in the Labor Market: Evidence from a Mining Boom and Bust," OSF Preprints tzmf2, Center for Open Science.
    8. Ralph De Haas & Steven Peolhekke, 2016. "Mining Matters: Natural Resource Extraction," OxCarre Working Papers 175, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    9. Poignant, Adrian, 2023. "Small-scale mining and agriculture: Evidence from northwestern Tanzania," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    10. Carole Treibich & Eleanor Bell & Elodie Blanc & Aurélia Lépine, 2022. "From a drought to HIV: An analysis of the effect of droughts on transactional sex and sexually transmitted infections in Malawi," Post-Print hal-03818619, HAL.
    11. Docquier, F. & Vasilakis, Ch. & Tamfutu Munsi, D., 2014. "International migration and the propagation of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 20-33.
    12. Kotsadam, Andreas & Tolonen, Anja, 2016. "African Mining, Gender, and Local Employment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 325-339.
    13. Terris-Prestholt, Fern & Windmeijer, Frank, 2016. "How to sell a condom? The impact of demand creation tools on male and female condom sales in resource limited settings," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 107-120.
    14. Aragón, Fernando M. & Rud, Juan Pablo & Toews, Gerhard, 2018. "Resource shocks, employment, and gender: Evidence from the collapse of the UK coal industry," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 54-67.
    15. Kota Ogasawara, 2021. "Technology, Institution, and Regional Growth: Evidence from Mineral Mining Industry in Industrializing Japan," Papers 2112.14514, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    16. Peter Egger & Andreas Lindenblatt, 2015. "Endogenous risk-taking and physical appearance of sex workers," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 16(9), pages 941-949, December.
    17. Aguilar-Gomez, Sandra & Benshaul-Tolonen, Anja, 2023. "The evolution and persistence of women's roles: Evidence from the Gold Rush," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 364-381.
    18. von der Goltz, Jan & Barnwal, Prabhat, 2019. "Mines: The local wealth and health effects of mineral mining in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-16.
    19. repec:oxf:wpaper:oxcarre-research-paper-131 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Gong, Erick & de Walque, Damien & Dow, William H., 2019. "Coping with risk: Negative shocks, transactional sex, and the limitations of conditional cash transfers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    21. De Haas, Ralph & Poelhekke, Steven, 2019. "Mining matters: Natural resource extraction and firm-level constraints," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 109-124.
    22. de Haas, Ralph & Poelhekke, Steven, 2016. "Mining Matters : Natural Resource Extraction and Local Business Constraints," Discussion Paper 2016-034, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    23. Alexander B. Lippert, 2014. "Spill-Overs of a Resource Boom: Evidence from Zambian Copper Mines," OxCarre Working Papers 131, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    24. Guimbeau, Amanda & Ji, Xinde James & Menon, Nidhiya & Rodgers, Yana van der Meulen, 2023. "Mining and women’s agency: Evidence on acceptance of domestic violence and shared decision-making in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Commodity shocks; Copper mining; Economic growth; HIV/AIDS; Zambia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

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