Negative Reality of the HIV Positives: Integrating Mental Health in Welfare Evaluation

46 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2007

See all articles by Sanghamitra Das

Sanghamitra Das

Indian Statistical Institute

Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay

Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi - Delhi Centre

Tridip Ray

Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi - Delhi Centre

Date Written: July 15, 2007

Abstract

Using primary household data we estimate family utility function parameters that measure the relative importance of consumption, schooling of children and health (both physical and mental) and find that mental health is far more important than consumption or children's schooling in determining household utility. We then estimate the monetary equivalent of the welfare loss to an HIV family to be Rs. 65,690 per month. Aggregating to the all India level we find that the annual welfare loss due to the only 0.9% prevalence of HIV/AIDS is a staggering 3,800 billion rupees per year, which is about two and a half times the annual health expenditure of the country in 2004 and 13.4% of its GDP! This huge magnitude is not surprising as it includes private valuation of one's own life as well as the cost of stigma for being HIV positive. In addition, the annual loss from external transfers (through debt, dissavings and social insurance) account for 5% of annual health expenditure and 0.23% of GDP. The significance of mental health can be gauged from the fact that had we not included it in the family welfare analysis, the welfare loss would have been just about 0.067% of GDP.

Keywords: HIV, AIDS, India, Mental Health

JEL Classification: I1

Suggested Citation

Das, Sanghamitra and Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop and Ray, Tridip, Negative Reality of the HIV Positives: Integrating Mental Health in Welfare Evaluation (July 15, 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1001431 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1001431

Sanghamitra Das

Indian Statistical Institute ( email )

7 S.J.S. Sansanwal Marg
Planning Unit
New Delhi - 110016
India

Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay (Contact Author)

Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi - Delhi Centre ( email )

7 S .J. S.
Sansanwal Marg
New Delhi, 110016
India

Tridip Ray

Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi - Delhi Centre ( email )

7 S .J. S.
Sansanwal Marg
New Delhi, 110016
India

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