@techreport{NBERw10861,
 title = "Compensating Wage Differentials and AIDS Risk",
 author = "Jeff DeSimone and Edward J. Schumacher",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "10861",
 year = "2004",
 month = "November",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w10861",
 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.},
}