UNSAFE SEX, AIDS, and DEVELOPMENT

Much of Africa has been ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. There, heterosexual contactis the primary mode of transmission for the HIV virus. Even when access to condomsis good and their price low, a large fraction of young Africans continue to engage inunprotected sex. In this paper, we propose a simple two period rational model of sexualbehavior that has the potential to explain why a large proportion of sexual activityin poor countries maybe unprotected. In the model economy, even when agents areperfectly cognizant of the risk involved in unsafe sexual activity, and fully internalizethe effects of their own sexual behavior on their chance of catching the virus, they mayrationally choose to engage in such risky behavior. Our results indicate that safe sexualpractice is essentially a “normal good” and that development may be key to reducingHIV infectivity.[...]