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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Hiv Testing: A Trojan Horse?, Stéphane Mechoulan
Hiv Testing: A Trojan Horse?, Stéphane Mechoulan
Stéphane Mechoulan
The consequences of HIV testing are unclear. Some infected individuals, assuming they behave selfishly, would tend to increase their number of partners. Meanwhile, non-infected ones or those ignorant of their status would decrease theirs, the result of which, on the equilibrium level of infection, is uncertain. Simulations from a simple dynamic model show how to generate the Philipson-Posner conjecture, i.e., that disclosure of HIV status may result in higher disease prevalence. In this benchmark case, testing would also lower welfare. Those results, however, appear to be fragile. In particular, very little altruism seems needed for testing to become beneficial, and …
Risky Sexual Behaviour And Incentives: The Impact Of New Therapies On Hiv Prevention, Stéphane Mechoulan, Pierre-Yves Geoffard
Risky Sexual Behaviour And Incentives: The Impact Of New Therapies On Hiv Prevention, Stéphane Mechoulan, Pierre-Yves Geoffard
Stéphane Mechoulan
This article studies the interaction between two individual decisions in the con- text of sexually transmitted diseases: on the one hand, the choice of risk level, on the other hand, the decision to get tested. Our angle here is economic epidemio- logy, which aims at identifying the essential arbitrages that involve private deci- sions. Since testing opens access to treatments fora disease, it reduces the private cost of risk taking, all the more so when available treatments are more efficacious. From this, it stems that improvements in treatments can spuran increase in the risk level, by diminishing the cost associated …
The Expulsion Of The Jews From France In 1306: A Modern Fiscal Analysis, Stéphane Mechoulan
The Expulsion Of The Jews From France In 1306: A Modern Fiscal Analysis, Stéphane Mechoulan
Stéphane Mechoulan
In 1306, at the peak of a severe financial and monetary crisis, Philippe the Fair expelled the Jews from his kingdom, declared himself creditor of their debts, seized their property and auctioned it off. Was this a clever move, financially speaking? Did Philippe gain more, by killing the goose that laid the golden egg, than by securing a steady flow of taxes? Taking discounting into account, conservative bounds on the sum collected through the seizures over the years that followed the expulsion challenge the traditional view that it was a bad deal. Still, the windfall brought by the relative success …