To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda
46 Pages Posted: 23 May 2014 Last revised: 7 Nov 2014
There are 3 versions of this paper
To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda
To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda
To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda
Date Written: October 2014
Abstract
In a field experiment in Uganda, we find that demand after a free distribution of three health products is lower than after a sale distribution. This contrasts with work on insecticide-treated bed nets, highlighting the importance of product characteristics in determining pricing policy. We put forward a model to illustrate the potential tension between two important factors, learning and anchoring, and then test this model with three products selected specifically for their variation in the scope for learning. We find the rank order of shifts in demand matches with the theoretical prediction, although the differences are not statistically significant.
Keywords: subsidies, health, pricing, learning
JEL Classification: D11, D12, D83, I11, I18, O12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation