Data and policy decisions: experimental evidence from Pakistan

Mike Callen, Saad Gulzar, Ali Hasanain, Muhammad Khan and Arman Rezaee

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We evaluate a program in Pakistan that equips government health inspectors with a smartphone app which channels data on rural clinics to senior policy makers. The system led to rural clinics being inspected 104% more often after 6 months, but only 43.8% more often after a year, with the latter estimate not attaining significance at conventional levels. There is also no clear evidence that the increase in inspections led to increases in general staff attendance. In addition, we test whether senior officials act on the information provided by the system. Focusing only on districts where the app is deployed, we find that highlighting poorly performing facilities on a dashboard viewed by supervisors raises doctor attendance by 75%. Our results indicate that technology may be able to mobilize data to useful effect, even in low capacity settings.

Keywords: absenteeism; bureaucracies; data-informed policy; health; information communication technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2020-09-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Journal of Development Economics, 1, September, 2020, 146. ISSN: 0304-3878

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Related works:
Journal Article: Data and policy decisions: Experimental evidence from Pakistan (2020)
Working Paper: Data and Policy Decisions: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan (2020)
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