Causal effects of HIV on employment status in low-income settings

TY - JOUR

T1 - Causal effects of HIV on employment status in low-income settings

AU - Ochalek, Jessica

AU - Revill, Paul

AU - van den Berg, Bernard

N1 - © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.

PY - 2017/9/8

Y1 - 2017/9/8

N2 - This paper estimates the causal impact of being HIV positive on individual employment status using a recursive bivariate probit with male circumcision as the instrument to overcome the endogeneity arising from simultaneity bias. The results show that being HIV positive reduces the probability of being employed by 5 percentage points among males in Uganda. The effect is greater for individuals employed in manual labor than non-manual labor. When limiting the sample to mainly individuals employed in subsistence agriculture, we find a 4 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of employment, suggesting that the effect occurs primarily through reductions in labor supply as opposed to demand. This is supported by additional analysis using univariate probit regressions to assess the association between different levels of HIV illness (as measured by CD4 cell count) and the likelihood of employment. The magnitude of the association increases as CD4 cell count decreases. Having a CD4 cell count of 200permm(3) or below is associated with a 9 percentage point reduction in employment compared to individuals with CD4 cell counts above 200permm(3).

AB - This paper estimates the causal impact of being HIV positive on individual employment status using a recursive bivariate probit with male circumcision as the instrument to overcome the endogeneity arising from simultaneity bias. The results show that being HIV positive reduces the probability of being employed by 5 percentage points among males in Uganda. The effect is greater for individuals employed in manual labor than non-manual labor. When limiting the sample to mainly individuals employed in subsistence agriculture, we find a 4 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of employment, suggesting that the effect occurs primarily through reductions in labor supply as opposed to demand. This is supported by additional analysis using univariate probit regressions to assess the association between different levels of HIV illness (as measured by CD4 cell count) and the likelihood of employment. The magnitude of the association increases as CD4 cell count decreases. Having a CD4 cell count of 200permm(3) or below is associated with a 9 percentage point reduction in employment compared to individuals with CD4 cell counts above 200permm(3).

KW - Journal Article

KW - HIV/AIDS

KW - Instrumental variable

KW - CD4

KW - Employment

KW - Recursive bivariate probit

KW - Severity of Illness Index

KW - Models, Econometric

KW - Humans

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Uganda/epidemiology

KW - Developing Countries/statistics & numerical data

KW - Male

KW - CD4 Lymphocyte Count

KW - Socioeconomic Factors

KW - Employment/statistics & numerical data

KW - Young Adult

KW - Adolescent

KW - Occupations/statistics & numerical data

KW - Adult

KW - HIV Infections/epidemiology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029484778&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ehb.2017.09.001

DO - 10.1016/j.ehb.2017.09.001

M3 - Article

C2 - 28930699

VL - 27

SP - 248

EP - 260

JO - Economics and Human Biology

JF - Economics and Human Biology

SN - 1570-677X

IS - Pt A

ER -