For public service or money: Understanding geographical imbalances in the health workforce in Ethiopia

Pieter Serneels, Magnus Lindelow, José Garcia Montalvo () and Abigail Barr
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José Garcia Montalvo: https://www.upf.edu/web/econ/faculty/-/asset_publisher/6aWmmXf28uXT/persona/id/3418887

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: Geographical imbalances in the health workforce have been a consistent feature of nearly all health systems, and especially in developing countries. In this paper we investigate the willingness to work in a rural area among final year nursing and medical students in Ethiopia. Analyzing data obtained from contingent valuation questions, we find that household consumption and the student’s motivation to help the poor, which is our proxy for intrinsic motivation, are the main determinants of willingness to work in a rural area. We investigate whoe is willing to help the poor and find that women are significantly more likely than men. Other variables, including a rich set of psychosocial characteristics, are not significant. Finally, we carry out some simulation on how much it would cost to make the entire cohort of starting nurses and doctors chooseto take up a rural post.

Keywords: Health care delivery; health workers; labour supply; public service (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 J22 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:989

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