Willingness to pay for malaria prevention in northern Ethiopia
D. Whittington
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1999
96
Ph.D.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1999
Estimating the value of preventing an episode of illness is a valuable part of the information base supporting the design and assessment of disease control policies and programs. This research measures the value people place on preventing malaria in themselves and members of their household. A behavioral model of household demand for malaria prevention is developed. Demand is then estimated using contingent valuation data collected in Tigray, Ethiopia. Willingness to pay is calculated as the area under the demand function and to the left of household size. The value people in Tigray place on preventing malaria in their households in approximately USusd 24 per year. This suggests that the benefits of preventing malaria are much larger than previously thought. The behavioral model is also used to examine how determinants of demand and willingness to pay for malaria prevention vary with the gender of the respondent. The analysis indicates that married women are willing to pay more to protect their household from malaria than married men. There are, however, no significant differences in the rate at which male and female respondents substitute teenagers and children for adults when choosing an optimal amount of malaria prevention for their household.