IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/gunwpe/0425.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Inequality and HIV in Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Durevall, Dick

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

  • Lindskog, Annika

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

Abstract

To analyze if the spread of HIV is related to economic inequality we estimate multilevel models of the individual probability of HIV infection among young Malawian women. We find a positive association between HIV infection and inequality at both the neighborhood and district levels, but no effect of individual poverty. We also find that the HIV-inequality relationship is related to risky sex, gender violence, and return migration, though no variable completely replaces economic inequality as a predictor of HIV infections. The HIV-inequality relationship does not seem to be related to bad health, gender gaps in education or women’s market work.

Suggested Citation

  • Durevall, Dick & Lindskog, Annika, 2009. "Economic Inequality and HIV in Malawi," Working Papers in Economics 425, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics, revised 06 Dec 2011.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/21669
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    2. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Martinsson, Peter, 2006. "Honestly, why are you driving a BMW?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 129-146, June.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:5886 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Andrew Clarkwest, "undated". "Neo-Materialist Theory and the Temporal Relationship Between Income Inequality and Longevity Change," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 7850b3e347d54143a3ab3a425, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Chrystelle Tsafack Temah, 2009. "What Drives HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 17(5), pages 41-70.
    6. Oster, Emily, 2012. "HIV and sexual behavior change: Why not Africa?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 35-49.
    7. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    8. Erzo F. P. Luttmer, 2005. "Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well-Being," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 963-1002.
    9. Deon Filmer & Lant Pritchett, 2001. "Estimating Wealth Effects Without Expenditure Data—Or Tears: An Application To Educational Enrollments In States Of India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(1), pages 115-132, February.
    10. Banerjee, Abhijit & Somanathan, Rohini, 2007. "The political economy of public goods: Some evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 287-314, March.
    11. Dunkle, Kristin L. & Jewkes, Rachel K. & Brown, Heather C. & Gray, Glenda E. & McIntryre, James A. & Harlow, Siobán D., 2004. "Transactional sex among women in Soweto, South Africa: prevalence, risk factors and association with HIV infection," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(8), pages 1581-1592, October.
    12. Jen, Min Hua & Jones, Kelvyn & Johnston, Ron, 2009. "Global variations in health: Evaluating Wilkinson's income inequality hypothesis using the World Values Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 643-653, February.
    13. Babones, Salvatore J., 2008. "Income inequality and population health: Correlation and causality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 1614-1626, April.
    14. Gravelle, Hugh & Wildman, John & Sutton, Matthew, 2002. "Income, income inequality and health: what can we learn from aggregate data?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 577-589, February.
    15. Veblen, Thorstein, 1899. "The Theory of the Leisure Class," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number veblen1899.
    16. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Jane Fortson, 2008. "The gradient in sub-saharan Africa: Socioeconomic status and HIV/AIDS," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 303-322, May.
    18. Göran Holmqvist, 2009. "HIV and Income Inequality: If There Is a Link, What Does It Tell Us?," Working Papers 54, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    19. Lachaud, Jean-Pierre, 2007. "HIV prevalence and poverty in Africa: Micro- and macro-econometric evidences applied to Burkina Faso," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 483-504, May.
    20. Durevall, Dick & Lindskog, Annika, 2012. "Economic Inequality and HIV in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1435-1451.
    21. Tawfik, Linda & Watkins, Susan Cotts, 2007. "Sex in Geneva, sex in Lilongwe, and sex in Balaka," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 1090-1101, March.
    22. Glymour, M. Maria, 2008. "Sensitive periods and first difference models: Integrating etiologic thinking into econometric techniques: A commentary on Clarkwest's "Neo-materialist theory and the temporal relationship betwee," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1895-1902, May.
    23. Fliessbach, Klaus & Weber, Bernd & Trautner, P. & Dohmen, Thomas J. & Sunde, Uwe & Elger, C. E. & Falk, Armin, 2007. "Social comparison affects reward-related brain activity in the human ventral striatum," Munich Reprints in Economics 20362, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    24. Clarkwest, Andrew, 2008. "Neo-materialist theory and the temporal relationship between income inequality and longevity change," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1871-1881, May.
    25. Göran Holmqvist, 2009. "HIV and Income Inequality: If There is a Link, What Does It Tell Us?," One Pager 83, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    26. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy & Fonseca, Jodie, 2006. "Risking death for survival: Peasant responses to hunger and HIV/AIDS in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1654-1666, September.
    27. Whiteside OBE, Alan, 2008. "HIV/AIDS: A Very Short Introduction," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192806925.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Durevall, Dick & Lindskog, Annika, 2012. "Economic Inequality and HIV in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1435-1451.
    2. Jaqueson K Galimberti & Stefan Pichler & Regina Pleninger, 2023. "Measuring Inequality Using Geospatial Data," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(4), pages 549-569.
    3. Michael Bayerlein & Vanessa A. Boese & Scott Gates & Katrin Kamin & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2021. "Populism and COVID-19: How Populist Governments (Mis)Handle the Pandemic," Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, now publishers, vol. 2(3), pages 389-428, December.
    4. Durevall, Dick & Lindskog, Annika, 2015. "Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Infection in sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 27-42.
    5. Travis W Lim & Constantine Frangakis & Carl Latkin & Tran Viet Ha & Nguyen Le Minh & Carla Zelaya & Vu Minh Quan & Vivian F Go, 2014. "Community-Level Income Inequality and HIV Prevalence among Persons Who Inject Drugs in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8, March.
    6. Muchomba, Felix M. & Wang, Julia Shu-Huah & Agosta, Laura Maria, 2014. "Women's land ownership and risk of HIV infection in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 97-102.
    7. Bosancianu, Constantin Manuel & Dionne, Kim Yi & Hilbig, Hanno & Humphreys, Macartan & KC, Sampada & Lieber, Nils & Scacco, Alex, 2020. "Political and Social Correlates of Covid-19 Mortality," SocArXiv ub3zd, Center for Open Science.
    8. Chakrabarty, Debajyoti & Bhatia, Bhanu & Jayasinghe, Maneka & Low, David, 2023. "Relative deprivation, inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    9. Leandro De Magalhães & Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis, 2015. "The Consumption, Income, and Wealth of the Poorest: Cross-Sectional Facts of Rural and Urban Sub-Saharan Africa for Macroeconomists," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 15/655, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.

    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. Nigel Kragten & Jesper Rözer, 2017. "The Income Inequality Hypothesis Revisited: Assessing the Hypothesis Using Four Methodological Approaches," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 1015-1033, April.
    2. Biggs, Brian & King, Lawrence & Basu, Sanjay & Stuckler, David, 2010. "Is wealthier always healthier? The impact of national income level, inequality, and poverty on public health in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 266-273, July.
    3. Ed Hopkins, 2008. "Inequality, happiness and relative concerns: What actually is their relationship?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(4), pages 351-372, December.
    4. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Dohmen, Thomas, 2014. "Behavioral labor economics: Advances and future directions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 71-85.
    6. Roberta Torre & Mikko Myrskylä, 2014. "Income inequality and population health: An analysis of panel data for 21 developed countries, 1975-2006," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(1), pages 1-13, March.
    7. Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V., 2018. "Social epidemiology for the 21st century," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 240-245.
    8. Michail Papazoglou & Ioannis Galariotis, 2020. "Revisiting the Effect of Income on Health in Europe: Evidence from the 8th Round of the European Social Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 281-296, February.
    9. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2013. "Publicly Provided Private Goods and Optimal Taxation when Consumers Have Positional Preferences," Working Papers in Economics 558, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    10. Lucy Bechtel & Grace Lordan & D. S. Prasada Rao, 2012. "Income Inequality And Mental Health—Empirical Evidence From Australia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(S1), pages 4-17, June.
    11. Pickett, Kate E. & Wilkinson, Richard G., 2015. "Income inequality and health: A causal review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 316-326.
    12. Jonathan K Burns & Andrew Tomita & Amy S Kapadia, 2014. "Income inequality and schizophrenia: Increased schizophrenia incidence in countries with high levels of income inequality," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(2), pages 185-196, March.
    13. Maite Blázquez & Elena Cottini & Ainhoa Herrarte, 2014. "The socioeconomic gradient in health: how important is material deprivation?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(2), pages 239-264, June.
    14. Andrew E. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2010. "Will GDP growth increase happiness in developing countries?," PSE Working Papers halshs-00564985, HAL.
    15. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2014. "Positional preferences in time and space: Optimal income taxation with dynamic social comparisons," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-23.
    16. Grönqvist, Hans & Johansson, Per & Niknami, Susan, 2012. "Income inequality and health: Lessons from a refugee residential assignment program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 617-629.
    17. Alassane Drabo, 2011. "Impact of Income Inequality on Health: Does Environment Quality Matter?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 146-165, January.
    18. Robert J. B. Goudie & Sach Mukherjee & Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Andrew J. Oswald & Stephen Wu, 2011. "Happiness as a Driver of Risk-Avoiding Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 3451, CESifo.
    19. Thomas Aronsson & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2013. "Veblen’s theory of the leisure class revisited: implications for optimal income taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 41(3), pages 551-578, September.
    20. Poulin, Michelle & Dovel, Kathryn & Watkins, Susan Cotts, 2016. "Men with Money and the “Vulnerable Women” Client Category in an AIDS Epidemic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 16-30.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; AIDS; gender inequality; gender violence; Malawi; poverty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:gunwpe:0425. 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: Jessica Oscarsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/naiguse.html .

    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.