TY  - JOUR
AU  - DeSimone,Jeff
AU  - Schumacher,Edward J.
TI  - Compensating Wage Differentials and AIDS Risk
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10861
PY  - 2004
Y2  - November 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10861
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10861.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeffrey S. DeSimone
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Arlington
701 S. West St.
Arlington, TX 76019
Tel: 817/272-3286
Fax: 817/272-3145
E-Mail: jdesimone@uta.edu

Edward J. Schumacher
Departments of Health Care Adminstration & Economi
Trinity University
715 Stadium Drive
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Tel: 210/999-8137
Fax: 210/999-8108
E-Mail: eschumac@trinity.edu
AB  - 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.
ER  -