Working Paper: NBER ID: w10861
Authors: Jeff Desimone; Edward J. Schumacher
Abstract: We examine the effect of HIV/AIDS infection risks on the earnings of registered nurses (RNs) and other health care workers by combining data on metropolitan statistical area (MSA) AIDS prevalence rates with annual 1987 --2001 Current Population Survey (CPS) and quadrennial 1988 --2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (SRN) data. Holding constant wages of control groups that are likely not exposed to AIDS risks and group-specific MSA fixed effects, a 10 percent increase in the AIDS rate raises RN earnings by about 0.8 percent in post-1992 samples, when AIDS rates were falling but a more comprehensive categorization of AIDS was used by the CDC. AIDS wage differentials are much larger for RNs and non-nursing health practitioners than for other nursing and health care workers, suggesting that this differential represents compensation paid for job-related exposure to potentially HIV-infected blood.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS; wage differentials; health care workers; registered nurses
JEL Codes: I110; J310
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| AIDS rates (O15) | RN earnings (Q30) |
| AIDS rates (O15) | wages of health care workers (J39) |
| AIDS rates (O15) | AIDS wage differentials (J31) |
| RN earnings (Q30) | AIDS wage differentials (J31) |
| AIDS rates (O15) | exposure to HIV-infected blood (I19) |
| exposure to HIV-infected blood (I19) | RN earnings (Q30) |
| AIDS wage differentials (J31) | job-related exposure to HIV (J28) |