Colonial Institutions and Africa’s HIV Epidemic: Evidence from Mozambique
November 17, Wednesday, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, on Zoom. The Zoom link is circulated separately via the BEE email list. Please fill the registration form to join our mailing list.
Presenter
Doctoral Candidate in Economics
Abstract
This paper links Africa’s history to its HIV epidemic through colonial institutions’ lasting effects on marriage markets. I exploit the arbitrary border within Mozambique between two regimes common across the continent: one that pushed over 50,000 young men annually into temporary labor migration (1897-1975) and another that heavily restricted their mobility (1891-1942). Historians contend the migrant-sending institution fundamentally altered marriage markets in that region. Using colonial census data, I show that young men there still married earlier and were closer in age to their wives two decades after the end of the mobility-restricting institution, even though migration rates had converged. Because smaller age disparities reduce HIV risk, I examine seroprevalence today and find it is nearly 50 percent (10 p.p.) lower in the former migrant-sending region. The data suggest that age disparities and associated behaviors are the main channel for this effect.