The Impact of Subsidized Antimalarials on Treatment Seeking Behavior

Jacqueline Fiore ()
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Jacqueline Fiore: Department of Economics, Tulane University

No 1717, Working Papers from Tulane University, Department of Economics

Abstract: I investigate the effect of the first multi-country antimalarial subsidy on the type and source of treatment taken for children under five years of age reporting a fever. I use nationally representative, cross-sectional survey data from 15 malaria endemic African countries over an 11 year period. My research design exploits the within country variation in malaria treatment subsidies. Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) are the recommended first line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. Overall, the ACTs subsidy achieved two of its main objectives. Among children reporting a fever, countries offering subsidized ACTs increased ACTs taken in the private sector by 6.8 percent and decreased treatment with lesser effective antimalarial monotherapies by 9.0 percent. However, the effect of the ACTs subsidy was not consistent among the three participating countries studied. Uganda showed the intended response with the greatest magnitude to the subsidy, whereas no significant effect was observed in Ghana or Nigeria. The mixed results among countries participating in the ACTs subsidy may be due to differences in ACTs availability, price, market share, and supporting interventions.

Keywords: Malaria; subsidy; Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs); Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria; Private Sector Co-payment Mechanism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09, Revised 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-hea
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http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1717r.pdf Revised Version, March 2018 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tul:wpaper:1717

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