Venue: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Presentation
The Economic Impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Latin America and the Muslim World: The Importance of Religious Beliefs and Ethnic Diversity
In the absence of substantial differences in the growth rates of per capita GDP across countries, what are the factors that explain the rapid spread of the HIV infection within a nation? This is an empirical question that needs to be explained. In order to elucidate the correlation between HIV prevalence and growth in a sample of 74 low- and middle-income countries, being Muslim (male circumcision, reduced consumption of alcohol and other practices) as well as ethnic diversity can be used as main instruments to produce estimates of the effect of HIV prevalence on the growth rate of real GDP per capita that are not affected by the presence of simultaneity.