Working for God? Evaluating Service Delivery of Religious Not-for-Profit Health Care Providers in Uganda

Reinikka, Ritva ; Svensson, Jakob

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE;    HEALTH CARE RESOURCES;    MEDICAL EQUIPMENT;    MALARIA;    SOCIAL SERVICES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3058
RP-ID  :  WPS3058

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Reinikka and Svensson exploit a uniquemicro-level data set on primary health care facilities inUganda to address the question: What motivates religiousnot-for-profit (RNP) health care providers? The authors usetwo approaches to identify whether an altruistic (religious)effect exists in the data. First, examining cross-sectionvariation, they show that RNP facilities hire qualifiedmedical staff below the market wage, are more likely toprovide propoor services and services with a public goodelement, and charge lower prices for services thanfor-profit facilities, although they provide a similar(observable) quality of care. RNP and for-profit facilitiesboth provide better quality care than their governmentcounterparts, although government facilities have betterequipment. These findings are consistent with the view thatRNP facilities are driven in part by altruistic concerns andthat these preferences matter quantitatively. Second, theauthors exploit a near natural experiment in which thegovernment initiated a program of financial aid for the RNPsector. They show that financial aid leads to morelaboratory testing of suspected malaria and intestinal wormcases, and hence higher quality of service and lower prices,but only in RNP facilities. The findings suggest thatworking for God matters.