NBER Working Papers by Nicholas Wilson

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) is the single most effective HIV prevention intervention in practice today. Nonetheless, little reliable empirical evidence exists on the behavioral effects of PMTCT. This paper documents the rapid expansion of access to PMTCT in Zambia during the period 2000-2007 and provides some of the first evidence on the change in reproductive behavior associated with PMTCT scale-up. The results of a primarily descriptive analysis suggest that PMTCT may have generated increases in knowledge about PMTCT and MTCT, large reductions in child mortality and pregnancy rates, and smaller changes in breastfeeding rates. However, additional research is required to address the potential endogeneity of PMTCT availability.

This paper documents the presence of non-economic career motivations in the U.S. labor market, explores reasons why such motivations could arise, and provides an explanation for why they might have persisted across many generations. The analysis links ethnic (migrant) labor market networks in the American Midwest when it was first being settled, the local identity or attachment to place that emerged endogenously to maintain the integrity of these networks, and occupational choice today. While fractionalization may adversely affect the performance of secular institutions, ethnic competition in the labor market could at the same time have strengthened within-group loyalty and parochial institutions. These values and their complementary institutions, notably the church, could have mutually re...