WHEN IS COMMUNITY-BASED MONITORING EFFECTIVE? EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENT IN PRIMARY HEALTH IN UGANDA

• Published in: Journal of the European Economic Association Vol. 8; no. 2-3; pp. 571 - 581
• Main Authors: Björkman, Martina, Svensson, Jakob
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2010; MIT Press
• Subjects: Access to health care; Business and economics; Communities; Control groups; Development economics; Economics; Ekonomi; Experimental Field Work on Development Issues in Africa; Gini index; Government services; Health care delivery; Health economics; Health outcomes; Income estimates; Income inequality; Medical personnel; Monitoring; Nationalekonomi; Psychoeducational intervention; Public goods; Public health; SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP; SOCIAL SCIENCES; Uganda
• ISSN: 1542-4766; 1542-4774; 1542-4774
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1542-4774.2010.tb00527.x

Evidence from recent randomized field experiments on community-based monitoring reveals substantial heterogeneous treatment effects. Using data from a randomized experiment in primary health in Uganda, we tested whether social heterogeneity can explain why some communities managed to push for better health service delivery, whereas others did not. The results suggest that income inequality, and particularly ethnic fractionalization, adversely impact collective action for improved service provision.