This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2013
  5. Fidelity Networks and Long-Run Trends in HIV/AIDS Gender Gaps

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Fidelity Networks and Long-Run Trends in HIV/AIDS Gender Gaps

  • Roland Pongou
  • Roberto Serrano
American Economic Review
vol. 103, no. 3, May 2013
(pp. 298–302)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

More than half of the HIV/AIDS-infected population today are women. We study a dynamic model of (in)fidelity, which explains the HIV/AIDS gender gap by the configuration of sexual networks. Each individual desires sexual relationships with opposite sex individuals. Two Markov matching processes are defined, each corresponding to a different culture of gender relations. The first process leads to egalitarian pairwise stable networks in the long run, and HIV/AIDS is equally prevalent among men and women. The second process leads to anti-egalitarian pairwise stable networks reflecting male domination, and women bear a greater burden. The results are consistent with empirical observations.

Citation

Pongou, Roland, and Roberto Serrano. 2013. "Fidelity Networks and Long-Run Trends in HIV/AIDS Gender Gaps." American Economic Review, 103 (3): 298–302. DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.3.298

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I12 Health Production
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration