A consistent partnership formation model: Application to the United Kingdom

We apply a consistent sexual partnership formation model which hinges on the assumption that one gender's choices drives the process (male or female dominant model). The other gender's behaviour is imputed. The model is fitted to UK sexual behaviour data and applied to a simple incidence model of HSV-2. With a male dominant model (which assumes accurate male reports on numbers of partners) the modelled incidences of HSV-2 are 77% higher for men and 50% higher for women than with a female dominant model (which assumes accurate female reports). Although highly stylized, our simple incidence model sheds light on the inconsistent