A0667
Title: Estimating causal effects of community health financing via principal stratification
Authors: Silvia Noirjean - University of Florence (Italy) [presenting]
Mario Biggeri - Department of Economics and Management - University of Florence (Italy)
Laura Forastiere - Yale University (United States)
Fabrizia Mealli - University of Florence (Italy)
Maria Nannini - University of Florence and ARCO - Action Research for CO-development (Italy)
Abstract: In applied economics, the common empirical strategy for analyzing experimental data with noncompliance is to use the Instrumental Variables method. When the effects are heterogeneous, this method allows, under certain assumptions, to identify the causal effect for Compliers, i.e., the subset of units whose treatment is affected by the assignment. One of these assumptions is the Exclusion Restriction (ER), which precludes the possibility of a causal effect for Never Takers, i.e., those whose treatment is unaffected by the assignment. We show the consequences of violations of this assumption in the impact evaluation of intervention of Community Health Financing (CHF), where households were randomly assigned to attend sensitization sessions and then receive the offer to join a CHF scheme. The analyses are performed using Bayesian Principal Stratification by first assuming and then relaxing the ER for Never Takers. This allows showing the positive impact of the intervention on the health costs of both Compliers and Never Takers. The causal effects for the former could be due to the sensitization but also to the actual participation in the scheme; those for the latter are attributable to the sensitization only and, by stating the ER, would have been assumed not to exist.
