Learning, Hygiene and Traditional Medicine
Daniel Bennett,
Asjad Naqvi () and
Wolf‐Peter Schmidt
Economic Journal, 2018, vol. 128, issue 612, F545-F574
Abstract:
Information provision is only an effective behaviour‐change strategy if the information is credible. A novel programme augments conventional hygiene instruction by showing participants everyday microbes under a microscope. Through a randomised evaluation in Pakistan, we show that this programme leads to meaningful hygiene and health improvements, while instruction alone does not. Traditional medicine, which offers an alternative disease model, may undermine learning by strengthening prior beliefs about hygiene. We show that believers in traditional medicine have smaller impacts, suggesting that traditional and modern medical beliefs are substitutes and that traditional medicine may exacerbate the infectious disease burden in this context.
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)
Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12549
Related works:
Working Paper: Learning, Hygiene, and Traditional Medicine (2014) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:econjl:v:128:y:2018:i:612:p:f545-f574
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://onlinelibrary ... 1111/(ISSN)1468-0297
Access Statistics for this article
Economic Journal is currently edited by Estelle Cantillon, Martin Cripps, Andrea Galeotti, Morten Ravn, Kjell G. Salvanes, Frederic Vermeulen, Hans-Joachim Voth and Rachel Kranton
More articles in Economic Journal from Royal Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().