Rebecca Lynn Thornton
Adjunct Research Associate Professor, PSC
- rebeccal@umich.edu
- 734-763-1414
- 2116 ISR-Thompson
- CV (PDF)
- Google Scholar Profile

BIO
Dr. Thornton's research focuses on issues related to health and education in developing countries and has involved field-experiments in Africa and South Asia. Current work includes examining how learning HIV results affect savings and investment behavior, measuring how financial incentives to stay HIV negative affect sexual behavior, and examining how menstruation affects education and labor force participation.
- Chinkhumba, Jobiba, Susan Godlonton, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2014. "The demand for medical male circumcision." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6(2): 152-177.
- Kerwin, Jason, Rebecca Lynn Thornton, and Sallie M. Foley. 2014. "Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Oral Sex among Rural and Urban Malawian Men." International Journal of Sexual Health 26(1): 66-77.
- Godlonton, Susan, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2013. "Learning from Others' HIV Testing: Updating Beliefs and Responding to Risk." American Economic Review 103(3): 439-444.
- Thornton, Rebecca Lynn. 2012. "HIV testing, subjective beliefs and economic behavior." Journal of Development Economics 99(2): 300-313.
- Oster, E., and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2012. "Determinants of Technology Adoption: Peer Effects in Menstrual Cup Take-Up." Journal of the European Economic Association 10(6): 1263-1293.
- Kohler, H., and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2012. "Conditional Cash Transfers and HIV/AIDS Prevention: Unconditionally Promising?" World Bank Economic Review 26(2): 165-190.
- Keswell, M., J. Burns, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2012. "Evaluating the Impact of Health Programmes on Productivity." African Development Review 24(4): 302-315.
- Godlonton, Susan, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2012. "Peer effects in learning HIV results." Journal of Development Economics 97(1): 118-129.
- Kerwin, Jason, S. Foley, Rebecca Lynn Thornton, P. Basinga, and J. Chinkhumba. 2011. "Missing safer sex strategies in HIV prevention: a call for further research." African Population Studies 25(2): 267-285.
- Oster, Emily, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2011. "Menstruation, Sanitary Products and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 3(1): 91-100.
- Thornton, Rebecca Lynn, Laurel E. Hatt, Erica M. Field, Mursaleena Islam, Freddy Solis Diaz, and Martha Azucena Gonzalez. 2010. "Social security health insurance for the informal sector in Nicaragua: a randomized evaluation." Health Economics 19(Suppl. 1): 181-206.
- Thornton, Rebecca Lynn. 2009. "Global Lessons from the AIDS Pandemic: Economic, Financial, Legal and Political Implications." Journal of Economic Literature 47(4): 1144-1145.
- Angotti, Nicole, Agatha Bula, Lauren Gaydosh, Eitan Zeev Kimchi, Rebecca Lynn Thornton, and Sara E. Yeatman. 2009. "Increasing the acceptability of HIV counseling and testing with three C's: Convenience, confidentiality and credibility." Social Science and Medicine 68(12): 2263-2270.
- Kremer, Michael, Edward Miguel, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2009. "Incentives to learn." Review of Economics and Statistics 91(3): 437-456.
- Obare, F., Rebecca Lynn Thornton, P. Fleming, P. Anglewicz, F. Martinson, A. Kapatuka, M. Poulin, S. Watkins, an, et al. 2009. "Acceptance of repeat population-based voluntary counselling and testing for HIV in rural Malawi." Sexually Transmitted Infections 85(2): 139-144.
- Thornton, Rebecca Lynn. 2008. "The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status." American Economic Review 98(5): 1829-1863.
- Jensen, Robert, and Rebecca Lynn Thornton. 2003. "Early female marriage in the developing world." Gender and Development 11(2): 9-19.