Learning, Misallocation, and Technology Adoption: Evidence from New Malaria Therapy in Tanzania

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Adhvaryu, Achyuta
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdu020
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 1331-1365
• 关键词: rural tanzania; combination therapy; febrile illness; eradication; exposure; pyrimethamine; artesunate; QUALITY; burden; COSTS

摘要

I study how the misallocation of new technology to individuals, who have low ex post returns to its use, affects learning and adoption behaviour. I focus on anti-malarial treatment, which is frequently over-prescribed in many low-income country contexts where diagnostic tests are inaccessible. I show that misdiagnosis reduces average therapeutic effectiveness, because only a fraction of adopters actually have malaria, and slows the rate of social learning due to increased noise. I use data on adoption choices, the timing and duration of fever episodes, and individual blood slide confirmations of malarial status from a pilot study for a new malaria therapy in Tanzania to show that individuals whose reference groups experienced fewer misdiagnoses exhibited stronger learning effects and were more likely to adopt.