Using preference estimates to customize incentives: an application to Polio vaccination drives in Pakistan

James Andreoni, Mike Callen, Karrar Hussain, Muhammad Khan and Charles Sprenger

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We use estimates of time preferences to customize incentives for polio vaccinators in Lahore, Pakistan. We measure time preferences using intertemporal allocations of effort, and use these estimates to construct individually tailored incentives. We evaluate the effect of matching contract terms to discounting parameters in a subsequent experiment with the same vaccinators. Our tailored policy is compared with alternatives that either rely on atheoretic reduced-form relationships for policy guidance or apply the same policy to all individuals. We find that contracts tailored to individual discounting outperform this range of policy alternatives.

Keywords: structural estimation; out-of-sample prediction; discounting; present bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D30 D90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2022-11-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Journal of the European Economic Association, 23, November, 2022. ISSN: 1542-4766

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117302/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Using Preference Estimates to Customize Incentives: An Application to Polio Vaccination Drives in Pakistan (2023)
Working Paper: Using Preference Estimates to Customize Incentives: An Application to Polio Vaccination Drives in Pakistan (2016)
Working Paper: Using Preference Estimates to Customize Incentives: An Application to Polio Vaccination Drives in Pakistan (2016)
Working Paper: Using Preference Estimates to Customize Incentives: An Application to Polio Vaccination Drives in Pakistan (2016)
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