IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cgd/wpaper/158.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lessons from Randomized Evaluations in Education and Health

Author

Listed:
  • Alaka Holla

    (Innovations for Poverty Action)

  • Michael Kremer

    (Center for Global Development)

Abstract

This paper surveys evidence from recent randomized evaluations in developing countries on the impact of price on access to health and education. The debate on user fees has been contentious, but until recently much of the evidence was anecdotal. Randomized evaluations across a variety of settings suggest prices have a large impact on take-up of education and health products and services. While the sign of this effect is consistent with standard theories of human capital investment, a more detailed examination of the data suggests that it may be important to go beyond these models. There is some evidence for peer effects, which implies that for some goods the aggregate response to price will exceed the individual response. Time-inconsistent preferences could potentially help explain the apparently disproportionate effect of small short-run costs and benefits on decisions with long-run consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Alaka Holla & Michael Kremer, 2009. "Lessons from Randomized Evaluations in Education and Health," Working Papers 158, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/pricing-and-access-lessons-randomized-evaluations-education-and-health-working-paper-158
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ito, Takahiro & Tanaka, Shinsuke, 2018. "Abolishing user fees, fertility choice, and educational attainment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 33-44.
    2. James Berry & Greg Fischer & Raymond Guiteras, 2020. "Eliciting and Utilizing Willingness to Pay: Evidence from Field Trials in Northern Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(4), pages 1436-1473.
    3. Cabrera, José María & Caffera, Marcelo & Cid, Alejandro, 2021. "Modest and incomplete incentives may work: Pricing plastic bags in Uruguay," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    4. Cabrera, José María & Caffera, Marcelo & Cid, Alejandro, 2020. "Small Incentives May Have Large Effects: The Impact of Prices on the Demand for Plastic Bags," MPRA Paper 100178, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Maja Adena & Rustamdjan Hakimov & Steffen Huck, 2024. "Charitable Giving by the Poor: A Field Experiment in Kyrgyzstan," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(1), pages 633-646, January.
    6. Lant Pritchett & Salimah Samji & Jeffrey S. Hammer, 2012. "It's All about MeE: Using Structured Experiential Learning ('e') to Crawl the Design Space," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-104, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. repec:pri:rpdevs:hammer_its_all_about_me is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sakaue, Katsuki, 2018. "Informal fee charge and school choice under a free primary education policy: Panel data evidence from rural Uganda," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 112-127.
    9. Shinsuke Tanaka, 2008. "Access to Health Infrastructure and Child Health Development: Evidence from Post-Apartheid South Africa," ISER Discussion Paper 0768, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, revised Jan 2010.
    10. Bonan, Jacopo & LeMay-Boucher, Philippe & Tenikue, Michel, 2016. "Increasing Anti-Malaria Bednet Uptake Using Information and Distribution Strategies: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Senegal," MITP: Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways 249787, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    11. Patrick J. McEwan, 2012. "Cost-effectiveness analysis of education and health interventions in developing countries," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 189-213, June.
    12. Karlan, Dean & Zinman, Jonathan, 2018. "Price and control elasticities of demand for savings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 145-159.
    13. Nadel, Sara & Pritchett, Lant, 2016. "Searching for the Devil in the Details: Learning about Development Program Design," Working Paper Series rwp16-041, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    14. Bensch, Gunther & Grimm, Michael & Peters, Jörg, 2014. "Why Do Households Forego High Returns from Technology Adoption - Evidence from Improved Cook Stoves in Burkina Faso," Ruhr Economic Papers 498, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. J.M. Ian Salas, 2012. "Consequences of withdrawal : Free condoms and birth rates in the Philippines," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201220, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    16. Gunther Bensch & Michael Grimm & Jörg Peters, 2014. "Why Do Households Forego High Returns from Technology Adoption - Evidence from Improved Cook Stoves in Burkina Faso," Ruhr Economic Papers 0498, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    17. repec:zbw:rwirep:0498 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Roxana Elena Manea; Pedro Naso, 2020. "School Fee Elimination and Educational Inequality in Tanzania," CIES Research Paper series 64-2020, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    19. Bensch, Gunther & Grimm, Michael & Peters, Jörg, 2015. "Why do households forego high returns from technology adoption? Evidence from improved cooking stoves in Burkina Faso," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 187-205.
    20. Sandrine A. Koissy-Kpein, 2015. "Gender-based violence and gender bias in schooling decision: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 107, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Spears, Dean, 2014. "Decision costs and price sensitivity: Field experimental evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 169-184.
    22. Sandrine A. Koissy-Kpein, 2015. "Gender-based violence and gender bias in schooling decision: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-107, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Publications Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cgdevus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.