Existing studies suggest that individual and household level economic shocks affect the
demand for and supply of risky sex. However, little evidence exists on the effects of an aggregate
shock on equilibrium risky sexual behavior. This paper examines the effects of the early
twenty-first century copper boom on risky sexual behavior in Zambian copper mining cities. The
results indicate that the copper boom substantially reduced rates of transactional sex and multiple
partnerships in copper mining cities. These effects were partly concentrated among young
adults and copper boom induced in-migration to mining cities appears to have contributed to
these reductions.