Tomas J. Philipson, Richard A. Posner, and John H. Wright

About the author: Tomas J. Philipson is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Richard A. Posner is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. John H. Wright is a research fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Philipson and Posner are the authors of Private Choices and Public Health: The AIDS Epidemic in an Economic Perspective.

Government AIDS prevention programs have been unsuccessful because public health officials have failed to understand the basic difference between the AIDS epidemic and previous epidemics. While other infectious diseases are contracted accidentally via contact with air or water or by eating contaminated food, HIV infection spreads only through the exchange of...