Economics BEAT Seminar - "Risk beliefs, soft commitments, and take-up of preventative health care: experimental evidence from Zimbabwe"

Despite free and wide availability, demand for HIV prevention remains weak in low-income, high-risk settings. We conduct a randomised controlled field experiment to evaluate the extent to which feedback-based interactive information on HIV risks and benefits of prevention, along with clinic referrals, increases take-up of a relatively recently available free prevention method – Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV. Our sample is a general population cohort of women aged 18-24 years in a low-income, high-risk setting – Eastern Zimbabwe. Six months after the intervention, we find a large correction in risk beliefs. Against a background of very low baseline take-up, within the six months we find a large relative increase in take-up of the prevention method. We find take-up is primarily amongst women with time-consistent preferences, demonstrating present-biased preferences are a possible barrier in demand for prevention. We find some evidence suggestive of risk compensation resulting from the intervention.