Do Public Health Interventions Crowd Out
Private Health Investments? Malaria Control
Policies in Eritrea
Abstract
It is often argued that engaging in indoor residual spraying (IRS) in areas
with high coverage of mosquito bed nets may discourage net ownership and
use. This is just a case of a public program inducing perverse incentives. We
analyze new data from a randomized control trial conducted in Eritrea which
surprisingly shows the opposite: IRS encouraged net acquisition and use. Our
evidence points to the role of imperfect information. The introduction of IRS
may have made the problem of malaria more salient, leading to a change in
beliefs about its importance and to an increase in private health investments
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