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Abstract
In this dissertation, I argue that the war on drugs" has increased Black STD risk bycreating imbalanced sex ratios which has enabled men with tastes" for promiscuity to formrisky sexual relationships. I test this hypothesis in several ways. First, I use data from theNLSY97 to examine the effect of mating options on promiscuity and condom use and usediverging sex ratios for Blacks in late adolescence to identify the effect of mating options onrisky sexual behavior. I find that Black men at the 90th quantile - men I term "promiscuous"- will have between 1.3 and 2.4 more female sex partners a year due to changes in the sexratio over the sample period. I also find evidence that Black men alter their condom usein response to the sex ratio. Separately, I test for a link between incarceration rates andSTD outcomes. I find strong evidence that Black incarceration rates are associated withhigher rates of gonorrhea and syphilis among Black females. I also have provided the firstquantitative evidence that the crack epidemic increased gonorrhea and syphilis.Gonorrhea rates began falling in the mid-to-late 1980s as the prison population continuedexpanding. I argue that abortion legalization, waning crack and the AIDS epidemic are partlyresponsible for these changes. I exploit the natural experiment offered by early legalizationof abortion five states in 1970, compared to universal legalization in 1973, to estimate theeffect of abortion legalization on second generation gonorrhea rates. I find mixed evidencefor the abortion legalization hypothesis, combined with consistently strong evidence thatthe crack epidemic and the AIDS epidemic contributed to the declines. Using a difference-in-difference-in-difference model, I find Black 15{19 year-old gonorrhea rates fell relative to35{39 year-olds in repeal states compared to Roe legalization states. I also find that forevery 100 deaths from AIDS, Black gonorrhea rates fell 7 cases per 100,000. The crack indexconsistently reveals strong positive correlations with gonorrhea rates for Blacks and Whites,but as the index is based on 3 proxies for crack, interpretation of the coefficients are difficult.