Increasing anti-malaria bednets uptake using information and distribution strategies

Abstract This paper studies the effect of information on malaria and of distribution strategies on the demand for anti-malaria bednets. We use a randomized experiment in the city of Thies in Senegal. We offer two orthogonal treatments to a random sample of households. The first is a sale treatment and consists of (1) an offer to purchase on the spot a bednet at a subsidized price or (2) an offer to purchase a bednet at the same subsidized price with a voucher valid for 7 days. The second is an information treatment that consists of a ten-minute information session on malaria related issues. We find that information has no significant effect on the demand of bednets and that, receiving a voucher increases purchasing by 20%. Our results suggest that selling bednets at a subsidized prize allowing for some flexibility with a short period of seven days increases purchase compared to the on-the-spot sale approach.