Presentation by Dr. Jishnu Das at the Joint Seminar in Developmental Economics

Posted: 10/7/2022 (CSDE Research and Demography News)

We’re pleased to announce that Dr. Jishnu Das of Georgetown University will be on campus to present at the Joint Seminar in Development Economics on Monday, October 10 at 11:00am. The seminar will take place in person in Savery 410.

 

Zoom Link (for those unable to attend in person): https://washington.zoom.us/j/98699064305 [washington.zoom.us]

 

There are some opportunities to meet with Jishnu on Monday (sign up here [docs.google.com]), but Jishnu is also giving the CSSS seminar on Wednesday, October 12, and will have many more opportunities to meet then.  So if you are interested in meeting with him then and not on the CSSS listserve, please let me know and I’ll make sure you get the sign-up.  Graduate students interested in joining Jishnu for lunch on Monday though, do let me know.

 

Please contact me at rmheath@uw.edu, if you have any questions about meetings or the seminar.

 

Title: Randomized Regulation: The impact of minimum quality standards on health markets

 

Abstract:  We report results from the first randomization of a regulatory reform in the health sector. The reform established minimum quality standards for patient safety, an issue that has become increasingly salient following the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics. In our experiment, the census of 1348 health facilities in three Kenyan counties were classified into 273 markets, and the markets were then randomly allocated to treatment and control groups. Government inspectors visited health facilities in treated markets and, depending on the results of their inspection, recommended closure or a timeline for improvements. The intervention increased compliance with patient safety measures in both public and private facilities (more so in the latter) and reallocated patients from private to public facilities without increasing out-of-pocket payments or decreasing facility use. In treated markets, improvements were equally marked throughout the quality distribution, consistent with a simple model of vertical differentiation in oligopolies. Our paper establishes the use of experimental techniques to study regulatory reforms and, in doing so, shows that minimum standards can improve quality across the board without adversely affecting utilization.

Time: 11:00 AM

Deadline: 10/10/2022

Location: University of Washington, Savery 410; https://washington.zoom.us/j/98699064305 [washington.zoom.us]