At the applied statistics workshop this week (Wednesday, October 29th) we have Maggie McConnell, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.  She will present work entitled To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda.  Please find the abstract below as well as on the website (here).

As usual, we will meet in CGIS Knafel Room 354 from 12-1:30 pm.  Lunch will be provided.  See you there!

-- Dana Higgins

Title: To Charge or Not to Charge: Evidence from a Health Products Experiment in Uganda

Abstract: In a field experiment in Uganda, we find that demand after a free distribution of three health products is lower than after a sale distribution. This contrasts with earlier work on insecticide-treated bednets, highlighting the importance of considering product characteristics in determining pricing policy. We put forward a model to illustrate the potential tension between two important factors, learning and anchoring, and then test this model with three products selected specifically for their variation in the scope for learning. We find the rank order of shifts in demand matches with the theoretical prediction, although differences are not statistically significant across all products.