Solving shortage in a priceless market: Insights from blood donation

Tianshu Sun, Susan Feng Lu and Ginger Zhe Jin

Journal of Health Economics, 2016, vol. 48, issue C, 149-165

Abstract: Shortage is common in many markets, such as those for human organs or blood, but the problem is often difficult to solve through price adjustment, given safety and ethical concerns. In this paper, we study two non-price methods that are often used to alleviate shortage for human blood. The first method is informing existing donors of a current shortage via a mobile message and encouraging them to donate voluntarily. The second method is asking the patient's family or friends to donate in a family replacement (FR) program at the time of shortage. Using 447,357 individual donation records across 8 years from a large Chinese blood bank, we show that both methods are effective in addressing blood shortage in the short run but have different implications for total blood supply in the long run. We compare the efficacy of these methods and discuss their applications under different scenarios to alleviate shortage.

Keywords: Shortage; Blood donation; Family replacement; Non-price method; Market design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D47 D83 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:48:y:2016:i:c:p:149-165

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.05.001

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