Using data we collected in Burkina Faso, we explore how child ability influences parents’ decisions to invest in their children’s human capital. We use a direct measure of child ability for all primary school–aged children, regardless of current school enrollment. We explicitly incorporate...

This paper studies the effect of increased access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for AIDS on self-reported risky sexual behavior, using data collected in Mozambique in 2007 and 2008. The survey sampled both households from randomly selected HIV positive individuals and comparison households...

In this article, I investigate how educational outcomes of orphans are affected by the education of the family members in their new family. The study uses household survey data from Rwanda that contain a large proportion of children living in households without their biological parents. The data...

This article uses a 13-year panel of individuals in Tanzania to assess how adult mortality shocks affect both the short- and long-run consumption growth of surviving household members. Using unique data that tracks individuals from 1991 to 2004, we examine consumption growth, controlling for a...

Due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, sub-Saharan populations are challenged with increasing adult mortality rates that have potentially profound economic implications. Yet little is known about the impact of adult deaths in African households. Using panel data from Tanzania, this article will explore...

HIV/AIDS is drastically changing the demographic landscape in high-prevalence countries in Africa. The prime-age adult population bears the majority of the mortality burden, and these “missing” prime-age adults have implications for the socioeconomic well-being of surviving family members....