Essays on Health and Development Economics
Creators: name: Mongoue, Bluette Arcady
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2023
Subjects: Development
Infrastructures
Health

description: Chapter 1 -- We offer the first evidence of the causal effect of son bias and offspring sex composition on HIV spread. Using individual level data from African countries, we find that a mother is more likely to be infected with HIV if she has a higher natural propensity to bear daughters rather than sons, or if she has fewer sons than desired. This finding is robust across different measures of son bias and sibling sex composition. The effect differs by type of kinship, marriage mode, and level of economic development. We uncover four underlying mechanisms. First, son bias leads to larger family size, thereby increasing the likelihood of unprotected sex. Second, son bias causes wives to be unfaithful. Third, son bias causes husbands to take additional wives when the first wife is more likely to produce daughters. Fourth, women who bear a daughter when unmarried are less likely to find a husband, leading to a larger number of sexual partners throughout their lifetime. In contrast, son preferences have no effect on a male's HIV status or sexual infidelity, except when he has low education. The findings support the classical theory of sex determination according to which child sex is determined by the male sexual gametes, as well as modern generalizations of this theory that also assign a role to mothers. Chapter 2 -- We examine how the advent of fast Internet has affected credit access in sub-Saharan Africa, and document implications for commercial banks' excess liquidity. Exploiting the gradual arrival of submarine Internet cables on the coast of African countries in combination with individual-level data, we apply a difference-in-differences framework and find large positive effects. These effects are larger in urban areas, driven by increased entrepreneurship, employment, productivity, and client solvency. In rural areas, the effects are significantly positive for non-agricultural business owners, and negative for agricultural business owners, which mirrors labor migration out of the agricultural sector to the trading and services sectors. Country-level panel data available for 32 countries in sub-Saharan Africa confirm the main findings, and show that banks' willingness to grant loans has increased and their excess liquidity has significantly decreased in response to the introduction of fast Internet. Chapter 3 -- Are roads and Internet complements or substitutes in the process of job creation? We use individual and firm level datasets from sub-Saharan African countries and an identification technique that combines difference-in-differences and instrumental variables to address this question. We find that roads and Internet jointly positively affect employment, and so act as complements in Sub-Saharan Africa's structural transformation. Skilled employment gains more from the simultaneous expansion of these infrastructures, and their effects also differ by gender, age, educational level, and level of economic development. We also uncover substantial gains for firms.