Learning, Misallocation, and Technology Adoption: Evidence from New Malaria Therapy in Tanzania

Achyuta Adhvaryu ()
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Achyuta Adhvaryu: School of Public Health, Yale University

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: I show that malaria misdiagnosis, common in resource-poor settings, decreases the expected effectiveness of an important new therapy–since only a fraction of treated individuals have malaria–and reduces the rate of learning via increased noise. Using pilot program data from Tanzania, I exploit variation in the location and timing of survey enumeration to construct reference groups composed of randomly chosen, geographically and temporally proximate acutely ill individuals. I show that learning is stronger and adoption rates are higher in villages with more misdiagnosis. Subsidizing diagnostic tools or improving initial targeting of new technologies may thus accelerate uptake through learning.

Keywords: technology adoption; learning; malaria; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 O12 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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