Trading HIV for sheep: Risky sexual behavior and the response of female sex workers to Tabaski in Senegal
2023
Cust, Henry | Lépine, Aurélia | Treibich, Carole | Powell‐jackson, Timothy | Radice, Rosalba | Tidiane Ndour, Cheikh | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) | University College of London [London] (UCL) | Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble (GAEL) ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ) ; Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) | City University of London | Institut d'hygiène Sociale, Dakar,
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Show more [+] Less [-]English. We use a cohort of female sex workers (FSWs) in Senegal to show how large anticipated economic shocks lead to increased risky sexual behavior. Exploiting the exogenous timing of interviews, we study the effect of Tabaski, the most important Islamic festival celebrated in Senegal, in which most households purchase an expensive animal for sacrifice. Condom use, measured robustly via the list experiment, falls by between 27.3 percentage points (pp) (65.5%) and 43.1 pp (22.7%) in the 9 days before Tabaski, or a maximum of 49.5 pp (76%) in the 7 day period preceding Tabaski. The evidence suggests the economic pressures from Tabaski are key to driving the behavior change observed through the price premium for condomless sex. Those most exposed to the economic pressure from Tabaski were unlikely to be using condoms at all in the week before the festival. Our findings show that Tabaski leads to increased risky behaviors for FSWs, a key population at high risk of HIV infection, for at least 1 week every year and has implications for FSWs in all countries celebrating Tabaski or similar festivals. Because of the scale, frequency, and size of the behavioral response to shocks of this type, policy should be carefully designed to protect vulnerable women against anticipated shocks.
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