Abstract:
Health care in developing countries is often unreliable and of poor quality, reducing incentives to use quality health services. Using data from a field experiment in India, I show that providing initial quality care improves the demand for quality health care by raising intended health insurance renewal and subsequent use of quality services. Randomly offering insurance policyholders a free consultation with a qualified doctor has a twofold effect: receiving this additional benefit raises willingness to pay to renew health insurance by 56 percent, exposed individuals are 11 percentage points more likely to consult a qualified practitioner when ill after the consultation.
Description:
Clara Delavallade is an Associate Professor in the School of Economics at UCT, a Research Associate of
SALDRU and a Research Fellow at IFPRI, c.delavallade@cgiar.org
