Working Paper: NBER ID: w27678
Authors: Michael Callen; Saad Gulzar; Syed Ali Hasanain; Muhammad Yasir Khan; Arman B Rezaee
Abstract: We evaluate a program in Pakistan that equips government health inspectors with a smartphone app which channels data on rural clinics to senior policy makers. The system led to rural clinics being inspected 104% more often after 6 months, but only 43.8% more often after a year, with the latter estimate not attaining significance at conventional levels. There is also no clear evidence that the increase in inspections led to increases in general staff attendance. In addition, we test whether senior officials act on the information provided by the system. Focusing only on districts where the app is deployed, we find that highlighting poorly performing facilities on a dashboard viewed by supervisors raises doctor attendance by 75%. Our results indicate that technology may be able to mobilize data to useful effect, even in low capacity settings
Keywords: smartphone monitoring; health clinics; Pakistan; randomized controlled trial; public health
JEL Codes: C93; D02; D73; K42; O17
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| smartphone app implementation (L96) | doctor attendance (I11) |
| smartphone app implementation (L96) | general staff attendance (J22) |
| smartphone app implementation (L96) | increased inspection rates (L51) |
| flagging poorly performing clinics (I11) | increased doctor attendance (I11) |