Regular Clients important as Insurance Providers for Sex Workers in Kenya

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

From "Risk-Coping through Sexual Networks: Evidence from Client Transfers in Kenya", by Jonathan Robinson (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Ethan Yeh (World Bank), January 7, 2011:

Why do women engage in transactional sex? While much of the explanation is that sex-for-money pays more than other jobs, we use a unique panel dataset constructed from 192 self-reported diaries of sex workers in Western Kenya to show that women who supply transactional sex develop relationships with regular clients, and that these clients send transfers in response to negative income shocks. Regular clients are the primary source of inter-person insurance that women receive, and women report in a separate survey that client transfers are an important reason that they participate in the market ....

 

We find substantial evidence that client transfers serve a risk-coping purpose. Transfers from regulars increase by 67-71% on the days around own illness, and by 124-125% on the days around the death of a friend or relative. Transfers also increase in response to health shocks caused by sexually transmitted infections, and on days in which sex workers are asked for gifts or loans from friends or family members. In relation to the sizes of the shocks, the amount of insurance provided is sizeable. Overall, transfers from regular clients are the primary source of inter-person income support that women receive (dwarfing that provided by friends or relatives) ....

 

we carefully check ... by examining whether transfers respond to the sexual activities performed that day or to other measures of participation in the sex market ... we find no evidence for this alternative ....

 

when women are asked directly why they see regular clients specifically. Help with shocks is the primary reason listed. This is a much more common response than that it is more enjoyable to spend time with regulars, that regulars are at less risk of being HIV positive, or that regulars pay more ....

 

we asked women for the primary sources they use for coping with risk. Ninety-eight percent of women report that clients are either the primary or secondary source used for risk-coping, a figure far greater than any other source (transfers from friends or family, working more, or using savings) ....

 

sex workers develop relationships with regular clients, and .... regular clients become one of the primary sources of insurance that women can rely upon when shocks occur. Women report access to these transfers as an important reason for engaging in transactional sex.

 

http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/293.pdf