Michèle Tertilt

The Role of Marriage in Fighting HIV

As the number of sexual partners matters for an individual’s risk to contract the disease, it also matters for the spread of HIV in a population. Encouraging marriage or dissuading divorce could thus be another way to mitigate HIV transmission. A study by Michele Tertilt, joint with Jeremy Greenwood, Philipp Kircher and Cezar Santos, focuses on how policies to incentivise marriage can influence individual’s risky behavior as well as relationship status. To do so the researchers employ a choice-theoretic general equilibrium search model of risky sexual behaviour, calibrated to data from Malawi. The results suggest that marriage-friendly policies can help to abate HIV/AIDS.

While visiting Munich, Mr Tertilt plans to work on two different research projects: 1) Regulation of Consumer Credit Markets with Over-Optimistic Consumers and (2) Status Externalities and Fertility in Korea.

Michele Tertilt is Full Professor at the University of Mannheim and Family Equality Network member as well as BREAD Affiliate, member of the European Development Research Network, CEPR Research Fellow, member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group and IZA Research Fellow. Previously he was Affiliated Faculty at Clayman Institute for Gender Research in Stanford, SIEPR Faculty Fellow in Stanford, NBER Faculty Research Fellow, CEPR Research Affiliate, Affiliate Professor at the University of Munich and EEA Council Member. He is the Managing Editor (joint) of the Review of Economic Studies and has served as Associate Editor of Macroeconomic Dynamics and JEEA.

Michele Tertilt holds an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota and a Diplom in Economics from Bielefeld University.