The AIDS Epidemic: Challenges for Feminist Economics

Abstract

Feminist economics can provide critical insights into understanding the HIV/AIDS epidemic – the disease's progression, its microeconomic and macroeconomic impacts, and the effectiveness of policy interventions. Yet, relatively little work has been or is being done by feminist economists on HIV/AIDS. In this paper, the editors briefly survey the recent social science literature on the gendered nature of the epidemic and identify key constructs of feminist economic theory that might be productively applied to understanding HIV/AIDS. For example, an analysis of safe sex within a game-theoretic bargaining framework would highlight the limitations of prevention efforts that focus on changing individual behavior and underscore the impact of gendered institutions on women's likelihood of infection and access to treatment. A gendered analysis of the microeconomic and macroeconomic impacts of HIV/AIDS would contribute to a fuller understanding of the disease's impact on economic well-being. This paper challenges feminist economists to address these important research questions.

Keywords:

• HIV/AIDS
• care work
• macroeconomic models
• health economics
• JEL Codes: I0, O1

Acknowledgments

This volume would not have been possible without the support, dedication, and enthusiasm of present and past Feminist Economics staff, particularly the editor, Diana Strassman, and former managing editor, Raj Mankad. Without their support and encouragement, this volume would not have been realized. We also owe special thanks to Laurie Guzmán, former journal administrator and Gemini Wahhaj, senior editor, for their editorial assistance. In addition, many members of the International Association for Feminist Economics contributed to the conceptualization and realization of this volume. Sonia Sahali, a Pomona College undergraduate, provided research assistance for the preparation of this introduction. Finally, we are also indebted to a large number of colleagues and scholars who served as anonymous referees for all of the papers submitted to be considered for this volume.

Notes

Elizabeth Katz (1997) offers a review of the use of both cooperative bargaining models and non-cooperative household models to broaden the understanding of the intra-family allocation of resources.

Kathleen Beegle, Joachim de Weerdt, and Stefan Dercon (2008) present econometric evidence of the impact of HIV/AIDS adult mortality on the consumption of surviving household members in Tanzania. Veni Naidu and Geoff Harris (2005) review evidence of the link between HIV/AIDS, household income, and poverty in South Africa. Alan Whiteside (2002) describes the HIV/AIDS poverty cycle in Africa.

Two recent examples include Edward C. Green, Daniel T. Halperin, Vinand Nantulya, and Janice Hogle (2006) and Elaine M. Murphy, Margaret E. Greene, Alexandra Mihailovic, and Peter Olupot-Olupot (2006).

The capabilities approach is discussed in several articles included in a special issue of Feminist Economics (Bina Agarwal, Jane Humphries, and Ingrid Robeyns 2003).