Events

The DPIR Experimental Methods Course will have a weekly guest speaker presenting an experimental research design and findings.

This workshop is open to those who might be interested. For more information and to request a link to join online, visit the CESS events listing.

Abstract

The Ghana Financial Incentives study is an RCT with 6500 participants designed primarily to determine whether cash incentives, which participants are informed about via a video message, increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. In addition, we also explore: the relative impact of cash incentives versus providing health information; how different levels of cash incentives may impact on vaccine uptake; the potential for spillover effects of incentives, whereby providing financial incentives in treatment arm may impact on vaccine uptake among others who have not been treated.

We designed the Ghana Financial Incentive project with a view to assessing the broader indirect consequences of a vaccine incentive policy initiative. There is a general concern that financial incentives can undermine intrinsic motivations and hence could have net social costs. The design addresses two dimensions that should be considered in scaling up a vaccine programme: spill-overs and treated subjects.

Following a recent African RCT we explicitly incorporate design features that will allow us to estimate the geographic spillover effect of the cash incentive treatments, which can come from diffusion of information about cash payments. A second concern is that cash incentives will have unintended, and potentially negative consequences for future health-related behavior. An extended follow-up with treated subjects is being planned in order to address this question.