Rebecca Thornton
Biographic Data
| ID | 3582064 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebecca Thornton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebecca |
| FAMILY NAME | Thornton |
| SIGNATURE | THORNTON R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4717-7220 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 114 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Girls outperforming boys
Factors associated with knowledge and use of home pregnancy test kits in Uganda
Early detection of pregnancy status may help women initiate earlier antenatal care and healthy pregnancy behaviors, which could lead to healthier mothers and infants. Pregnancy tests are inexpensive and easy to use; meanwhile, little attention has been given to understanding women’s knowledge and use of home pregnancy tests, especially in developing countries. We analyze cross-sectional data collected from 1,008 women ages 18–35, living in Northe…
How Do Women Learn They Are Pregnant? The Introduction of Clinics and Pregnancy Awareness in Nepal
The earlier a woman learns about her pregnancy status, the sooner she can make decisions about her own and infant's health. This paper examines how women learn about their pregnancy status and measures how access to pregnancy tests affects earlier pregnancy knowledge. Using 10 years of individual‐level monthly panel data in Nepal, we find that, on average, women learn they are pregnant in their 4.6th month of pregnancy. Living approximately a mil…
Making the Grade
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The program raises reading scores by 0.64 SD and writing scores by 0.45 SD. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (−0.33 SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of e…
Boys lagging behind
Responding to Risk
Understanding behavioral responses to changes in actual or perceived risk is important because risk-reduction goals can be undermined by risk-compensating behavior. This paper examines the response to new information about the risk of HIV infection. Approximately 1,200 circumcised and uncircumcised men in rural Malawi are randomly informed that male circumcision reduces the HIV transmission rate, predicting asymmetric behavioral responses. We fin…
Counseling Women and Couples on Family Planning
This article evaluates the effects of involving men in family planning counseling in Jordan using a randomized experiment. We randomly assigned a sample of 1,247 married women to receive women‐only counseling, couples counseling, or no counseling. We measured the effects of each type of counseling on family planning use, knowledge, attitudes, and spousal communication about family planning. Compared to no counseling, couples counseling led to a 5…
Education as Liberation
This paper studies the political and social impacts of increased education by utilizing a randomized girls' merit scholarship programme in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary schooling. Consistent with the view that education empowers the disadvantaged to challenge authority, we find that the programme reduced the acceptance of domestic violence and political authority. Young women in programme schools also increased their objective polit…
Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Oral Sex Among Rural and Urban Malawian Men
Objectives: Despite medical evidence that female-to-male oral sex (fellatio) carries a lower risk for HIV transmission than unprotected vaginal intercourse, little research exists on the practice of fellatio in Africa. The objective of this study was to document the prevalence of oral sex in Malawi, and to provide the first evidence on factors associated with the practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We used two samples of men from Malawi—one …
What Do People Actually Learn from Public Health Campaigns? Incorrect Inferences About Male Circumcision and Female HIV Infection Risk Among Men and Women in Malawi
HIV testing, subjective beliefs and economic behavior
Peer effects in learning HIV results
Incentives to Learn
Increasing the acceptability of HIV counseling and testing with three C's
The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status
This paper evaluates an experiment in which individuals in rural Malawi were randomly assigned monetary incentives to learn their HIV results after being tested. Distance to the HIV results centers was also randomly assigned. Without any incentive, 34 percent of the participants learned their HIV results. However, even the smallest incentive doubled that share. Using the randomly assigned incentives and distance from results centers as instrument…
Early female marriage in the developing world
Many women in the developing world are subject to marriage at an early age. Most such women have little choice in the age at which they marry, or whom they marry. In this article, we examine patterns and trends of early marriage in the developing world. The incidence varies widely, from a high of 70 per cent in south Asia to a low of 30 per cent in South East Asia. Women who marry young tend to have less education and begin childrearing earlier, …
Early female marriage in the developing world
Many women in the developing world are subject to marriage at an early age. Most such women have little choice in the age at which they marry, or whom they marry. In this article, we examine patterns and trends of early marriage in the developing world. The incidence varies widely, from a high of 70 per cent in south Asia to a low of 30 per cent in South East Asia. Women who marry young tend to have less education and begin childrearing earlier, …
Increasing the acceptability of HIV counseling and testing with three C's
Education as Liberation
This paper studies the political and social impacts of increased education by utilizing a randomized girls' merit scholarship programme in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary schooling. Consistent with the view that education empowers the disadvantaged to challenge authority, we find that the programme reduced the acceptance of domestic violence and political authority. Young women in programme schools also increased their objective polit…
Peer effects in learning HIV results
Counseling Women and Couples on Family Planning
This article evaluates the effects of involving men in family planning counseling in Jordan using a randomized experiment. We randomly assigned a sample of 1,247 married women to receive women‐only counseling, couples counseling, or no counseling. We measured the effects of each type of counseling on family planning use, knowledge, attitudes, and spousal communication about family planning. Compared to no counseling, couples counseling led to a 5…
HIV testing, subjective beliefs and economic behavior
Boys lagging behind
Early female marriage in the developing world
Many women in the developing world are subject to marriage at an early age. Most such women have little choice in the age at which they marry, or whom they marry. In this article, we examine patterns and trends of early marriage in the developing world. The incidence varies widely, from a high of 70 per cent in south Asia to a low of 30 per cent in South East Asia. Women who marry young tend to have less education and begin childrearing earlier, …
The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status
This paper evaluates an experiment in which individuals in rural Malawi were randomly assigned monetary incentives to learn their HIV results after being tested. Distance to the HIV results centers was also randomly assigned. Without any incentive, 34 percent of the participants learned their HIV results. However, even the smallest incentive doubled that share. Using the randomly assigned incentives and distance from results centers as instrument…
Incentives to Learn
Increasing the acceptability of HIV counseling and testing with three C's
Peer effects in learning HIV results
HIV testing, subjective beliefs and economic behavior
Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Oral Sex Among Rural and Urban Malawian Men
Objectives: Despite medical evidence that female-to-male oral sex (fellatio) carries a lower risk for HIV transmission than unprotected vaginal intercourse, little research exists on the practice of fellatio in Africa. The objective of this study was to document the prevalence of oral sex in Malawi, and to provide the first evidence on factors associated with the practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We used two samples of men from Malawi—one …
What Do People Actually Learn from Public Health Campaigns? Incorrect Inferences About Male Circumcision and Female HIV Infection Risk Among Men and Women in Malawi
Responding to Risk
Understanding behavioral responses to changes in actual or perceived risk is important because risk-reduction goals can be undermined by risk-compensating behavior. This paper examines the response to new information about the risk of HIV infection. Approximately 1,200 circumcised and uncircumcised men in rural Malawi are randomly informed that male circumcision reduces the HIV transmission rate, predicting asymmetric behavioral responses. We fin…
Counseling Women and Couples on Family Planning
This article evaluates the effects of involving men in family planning counseling in Jordan using a randomized experiment. We randomly assigned a sample of 1,247 married women to receive women‐only counseling, couples counseling, or no counseling. We measured the effects of each type of counseling on family planning use, knowledge, attitudes, and spousal communication about family planning. Compared to no counseling, couples counseling led to a 5…
Education as Liberation
This paper studies the political and social impacts of increased education by utilizing a randomized girls' merit scholarship programme in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary schooling. Consistent with the view that education empowers the disadvantaged to challenge authority, we find that the programme reduced the acceptance of domestic violence and political authority. Young women in programme schools also increased their objective polit…
Making the Grade
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The program raises reading scores by 0.64 SD and writing scores by 0.45 SD. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (−0.33 SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of e…
Boys lagging behind
How Do Women Learn They Are Pregnant? The Introduction of Clinics and Pregnancy Awareness in Nepal
The earlier a woman learns about her pregnancy status, the sooner she can make decisions about her own and infant's health. This paper examines how women learn about their pregnancy status and measures how access to pregnancy tests affects earlier pregnancy knowledge. Using 10 years of individual‐level monthly panel data in Nepal, we find that, on average, women learn they are pregnant in their 4.6th month of pregnancy. Living approximately a mil…
Factors associated with knowledge and use of home pregnancy test kits in Uganda
Early detection of pregnancy status may help women initiate earlier antenatal care and healthy pregnancy behaviors, which could lead to healthier mothers and infants. Pregnancy tests are inexpensive and easy to use; meanwhile, little attention has been given to understanding women’s knowledge and use of home pregnancy tests, especially in developing countries. We analyze cross-sectional data collected from 1,008 women ages 18–35, living in Northe…
Girls outperforming boys
Medicine (10 works) · Demography (9 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (7 works) · Family medicine (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (5 works) · Demography (5 works) · Economic growth (5 works)