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Subsidies, Information, and the Timing of Children’s Health Care in Mali
September 28, 2016Poverty and Applied Microeconomics Seminar Series

Speaker: Anja Sautmann is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Brown University. More »

Abstract: We study how healthcare subsidies and improved information affect over- and under- use of primary healthcare in a randomized control trial of 1544 children in Mali. In a dynamic model of healthcare demand, misuse relative to policymaker preferences (here given by WHO care-seeking standards) arises from seeking care too early or too late during an illness spell. Using nine weeks of daily data, we show that the barrier to optimal care seeking is cost, not information: subsidies increase demand by over 250%, but overuse is rare with or without the subsidy. Information, contrary to intent, appears to increase underuse, as our model predicts.

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Last Updated: Sep 26, 2016

The Poverty and Applied Micro Seminar Series is a weekly series hosted by the World Bank's research department. The series invites leading researchers in applied microeconomics from the fields of poverty, human development and public service delivery, agriculture and rural development, political economy, behavioral economics, private sector development, and a range of other fields to present the results of their most recent research in a seminar format. The full list of seminars can be viewed here.

Event Details
  • Date: September 28, 2016
  • Location: MC 3-570
  • Time: 12:30 - 2:00 pm
  • CONTACT: Shweta Mesipam
  • smesipam@worldbank.org



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