TY - JOUR T1 - Compensated for Life JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 345 LP - 369 DO - 10.3368/jhr.48.2.345 VL - 48 IS - 2 AU - Raj Arunachalam AU - Manisha Shah Y1 - 2013/03/31 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/345.abstract N2 - Sex workers draw a premium for engaging in unprotected sex. We theoretically motivate a test of whether this premium represents a compensating differential for disease, thereby mitigating sex workers’ propensity to use condoms. Using transaction-level data and biological STI markers from sex workers in Ecuador, we exploit within-worker variation across local disease environments. We find that locations with low disease prevalence exhibit a very low, insignificant premium for unprotected sex. A one percentage point increase in the local disease rate increases the premium for noncondom sex by 33 percent. Market forces may curb the self-limiting nature of STI epidemics. ER -