HIV/AIDS knowledge differentials by Geopolitical, Social and Economic Status: Evidence from Surveyed Children in South East Asia

Diskussionspapier, Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung, Universität St. Gallen#### The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a major public health threat, with evidence showing that information campaigns are effective policy tools to control its evolution. Many of these are designed to increase children's knowledge on HIV before they become sexually active or start to experiment with intravenous drugs, with the effectiveness of such campaigns subject to the extend to which they reach all sectors in the population. This paper applies matching methods and techniques for programme evaluation to detect differentials in children's knowledge on HIV/AIDS by geopolitical, social and economic status, allowing for health risk-taking behaviour. Drawing from a sample of surveyed children in South East Asia and the Pacific, the results show support for Amartya Sen's (2002) suggested negative effect of non-democracies on HIV/AIDS awareness, although children in democracies with low development and/or low HIV-prevalence seem to be less well equipped to deal with the epidemic. Within-country results suggest that gender, schooling status and living in a urban setting are determinants of knowledge differentials, while parental income or occupation are not. This study has policy implications with respect to what sectors in the population should information campaigns target. Download Discussion Paper: (pdf, 500kb)