IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1905.02073.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When abstinence increases prevalence

Author

Listed:
  • Sander Heinsalu

Abstract

In the pool of people seeking partners, a uniformly greater preference for abstinence increases the prevalence of infection and worsens everyone's welfare. In contrast, prevention and treatment reduce prevalence and improve payoffs. The results are driven by adverse selection: people who prefer more partners are likelier disease carriers. A given decrease in the number of matches is a smaller proportional reduction for people with many partners, thus increases the fraction of infected in the pool. The greater disease risk further decreases partner-seeking and payoffs.

Suggested Citation

  • Sander Heinsalu, 2019. "When abstinence increases prevalence," Papers 1905.02073, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1905.02073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.02073
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goyal, Sanjeev & Vigier, Adrien, 2015. "Interaction, protection and epidemics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 64-69.
    2. Andrea Galeotti & Brian W. Rogers, 2013. "Strategic Immunization and Group Structure," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 1-32, May.
    3. O'Donnell, L. & Stueve, A. & San Doval, A. & Duran, R. & Haber, D. & Atnafou, R. & Johnson, N. & Grant, U. & Murray, H. & Juhn, G. & Tang, J. & Piessens, P., 1999. "The effectiveness of the reach for health community youth service learning program in reducing early and unprotected sex among urban middle school students," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(2), pages 176-181.
    4. Jeremy Greenwood & Philipp Kircher & Cezar Santos & Michèle Tertilt, 2017. "The Role of Marriage in Fighting HIV: A Quantitative Illustration for Malawi," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 158-162, May.
    5. Rowthorn, Robert & Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2012. "The Optimal Control of Infectious Diseases via Prevention and Treatment," CEPR Discussion Papers 8925, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Francis, Andrew M. & Mialon, Hugo M., 2010. "Tolerance and HIV," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 250-267, March.
    7. Darius Lakdawalla & Neeraj Sood & Dana Goldman, 2006. "HIV Breakthroughs and Risky Sexual Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(3), pages 1063-1102.
    8. Michael Kremer, 1994. "Can Having Fewer Partners Increase Prevalence of Aids?," NBER Working Papers 4942, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1994. "Comparing Equilibria," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 441-459, June.
    10. Auld, M. Christopher, 2003. "Choices, beliefs, and infectious disease dynamics," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 361-377, May.
    11. Fenichel, Eli P., 2013. "Economic considerations for social distancing and behavioral based policies during an epidemic," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 440-451.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heinsalu, Sander, 2021. "Promotion of (interaction) abstinence increases infection prevalence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 94-112.
    2. Sander Heinsalu, 2020. "Infection arbitrage," Papers 2004.08701, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2020.
    3. David E. Bloom & Michael Kuhn & Klaus Prettner, 2022. "Modern Infectious Diseases: Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 85-131, March.
    4. Eduard Talamàs & Rakesh Vohra, 2018. "Go Big or Go Home: A Free and Perfectly Safe but Only Partially Effective Vaccine Can Make Everyone Worse Off," PIER Working Paper Archive 18-006, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 15 Jan 2018.
    5. Rowthorn, Robert & Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2012. "The Optimal Control of Infectious Diseases via Prevention and Treatment," CEPR Discussion Papers 8925, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Reyer Gerlagh, 2020. "Closed-Form Solutions for Optimal Social Distancing in a SIR Model of Covid-19 Suppression," CESifo Working Paper Series 8335, CESifo.
    7. Elena Gubar & Laura Policardo & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera & Vladislav Taynitskiy, 2021. "Optimal Lockdown Policies driven by Socioeconomic Costs," Papers 2105.08349, arXiv.org.
    8. Matteo Bizzarri & Fabrizio Panebianco & Paolo Pin, 2023. "Homophily and Infections: Static and Dynamic Effects," CSEF Working Papers 672, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    9. Adriani, Fabrizio & Ladley, Dan, 2021. "Social distance, speed of containment and crowding in/out in a network model of contagion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 597-625.
    10. Goodkin-Gold, Matthew & Kremer, Michael & Snyder, Christopher M. & Williams, Heidi, 2022. "Optimal vaccine subsidies for endemic diseases," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Bisin, Alberto & Moro, Andrea, 2022. "Spatial‐SIR with network structure and behavior: Lockdown rules and the Lucas critique," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 370-388.
    12. Talamàs, Eduard & Vohra, Rakesh, 2020. "Free and perfectly safe but only partially effective vaccines can harm everyone," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 277-289.
    13. Mannberg, Andréa, 2012. "Risk and rationalization—The role of affect and cognitive dissonance for sexual risk taking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1325-1337.
    14. Jeremy Greenwood & Philipp Kircher & Cezar Santos & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "An Equilibrium Model of the African HIV/AIDS Epidemic," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1081-1113, July.
    15. Acemoglu, Daron & Malekian, Azarakhsh & Ozdaglar, Asu, 2016. "Network security and contagion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 536-585.
    16. Bradley, Jake & Ruggieri, Alessandro & Spencer, Adam Hal, 2021. "Twin Peaks: Covid-19 and the labor market," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    17. Farboodi, Maryam & Jarosch, Gregor & Shimer, Robert, 2021. "Internal and external effects of social distancing in a pandemic," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    18. Muscillo, Alessio & Pin, Paolo & Razzolini, Tiziano, 2021. "Spreading of an infectious disease between different locations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 508-532.
    19. Andrea Sorensen, 2023. "The role of vaccine effectiveness on individual vaccination decisions and welfare," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(6), pages 1212-1228, December.
    20. Toxvaerd, F. & Rowthorn, R., 2020. "On the Management of Population Immunity," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2080, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1905.02073. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.