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In-kind incentives and health worker performance: Experimental evidence from El Salvador

Pedro Bernal Lara and Sebastian Martinez

Journal of Health Economics, 2020, vol. 70, issue C

Abstract: We experimentally evaluated the effects of in-kind team incentives on health worker performance in El Salvador, with 38 out of 75 community health teams randomly assigned to performance incentives over a 12-month period. All teams received monitoring, performance feedback and recognition for their achievements allowing us to isolate the effect of the incentive. While both treatment and control groups exhibit improvements in performance measures over time, the in-kind incentives generated significant improvements in community outreach, quality of care, timeliness of care, and utilization of maternal and child health services after 12 months. Gains were largest for teams at the bottom and top of the baseline performance distribution. We find no evidence of results being driven by changes in reporting or by shifting away effort from non-contracted outcomes. These results suggest that in-kind team incentives may be a viable alternative to monetary or individual incentives in certain contexts.

Keywords: Pay for performance; Performance incentives; In-kind; Team incentives; Health services; El Salvador (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 I12 I15 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: In-Kind Incentives and Health Worker Performance: Experimental Evidence from El Salvador (2018) Downloads
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:70:y:2020:i:c:s0167629618311627

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102267

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Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire

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