Compensated for Life: Sex Work and Disease Risk
As sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence rises, individuals substitute away from risky sex; this behavioral response renders STI epidemics self-limiting. In the commercial sex sector, however, prostitutes draw a premium for engaging in unprotected sex, potentially mitigating their propensity to use condoms. While several studies have estimated this premium, none have been able to identify its source as a compensating differential for disease risk. We write a simple model to motivate a test of compensating differential hypothesis. Using transaction-level data and biological STI markers from sex workers in Ecuador, we show that locations with low disease prevalence exhibit a very
