Promotion, Persistence, and Consequences of HIV Testing: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Ethiopia

Using data from a randomized controlled trial involving door-to-door HIV education, homebased voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT), and facility-based VCT, the latter of which relies on conditional cash transfers, we find that both home-based VCT and facility-based VCT significantly increase HIV testing take-up, with the former being more effective in detecting HIV-positive cases. We also find that previous HIV testing does not dampen demand for future HIV testing. Subjects who tested HIV-positive (HIV-negative) tend to revise their prior beliefs about HIV infection upwards (downwards) in the short term, but this effect tends to dissipate quickly. (JEL: I10, C93, D80) ∗Kim: Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, [email protected]; Haile: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), [email protected]; Lee: College of Nursing, Yonsei University, [email protected]. The authors would like to thank Booyuel Kim, Eric McDermott, Michael Lovenheim, John Cawley, Cristian Pop-Eleches, Eric Verhoogen, and Leigh Linden as well as the seminar participants at Columbia University, Cornell University, the Myoungsung Christian Medical School in Ethiopia, and the sixth annual meeting of the Economics of Risky Behaviors (AMERB). We acknowledge the financial support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Program for Economic Research at Columbia University, the Center for the Study of Development Strategies, the Applied Statistics Center, and Yonsei University College of Nursing. We acknowledge technical and material support from the Arsi Zone and Hetosa District Heath Bureaus, Adama University Department of Public Health, Ethiopian AIDS Resource Center, and Population Services International in Ethiopia. We thank Kyuk Suk Chang, Senait Assefa, and Kassahun Mengistie for their excellent research assistance. This study was approved by the Ethiopian National Health Research Ethics Committee (RDHE-76-92-2010), the Ethics Committee at Oromia Regional Health Bureau (BEFO-HBJFG-1-38-155), the Columbia University Institutional Review Board (IRB-AAAE0507), and the Yonsei University Institutional Review Board (YUCON-IRB-2009-0014). All errors and omissions are our own.