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Measurement error in discrete health facility choice models: An example from urban Senegal
Author(s) -
Cronin Christopher J.,
Guilkey David K.,
Speizer Ilene S.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of applied econometrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.878
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1099-1255
pISSN - 0883-7252
DOI - 10.1002/jae.2739
Subject(s) - preference , discrete choice , health facility , econometrics , revealed preference , quality (philosophy) , contrast (vision) , economics , statistics , computer science , business , environmental health , health services , medicine , microeconomics , mathematics , population , philosophy , epistemology , artificial intelligence
Summary We use individual‐level health facility choice data from urban Senegal to estimate consumer preferences for facility characteristics related to maternal health services. We find that consumers consider a large number of quality‐related facility characteristics, as well as travel costs, when making their health facility choice. In contrast to the typical assumption in the literature, our findings indicate that individuals frequently bypass the facility nearest their home. In light of this, we show that the mismeasured data used commonly in the literature produces biased preference estimates; most notably, the literature likely overestimates consumer distaste for travel.