Increasing the take-up of public health services: An at-scale experiment on digital government
Journal of Public Economics · 2023 · Sebastián Gallegos、Benjamin Roseth、Ana Laura Cuesta、Mario A. Sánchez
中文摘要
提高公共服务利用率是一项关键挑战。我们投资建设了一个由政府运营、面向一项重要健康筛查服务的数字预约系统，并开展了一项鼓励使用该系统的大规模实验，重点评估交易成本和信息的影响。我们利用乌拉圭首都符合资格女性近乎全体（47,600人）的行政记录，将其随机分配至两组：受邀通过我们的数字系统预约，或按惯常方式通过当地诊所预约。在16周内，与按惯常方式发出的邀请相比，数字化鼓励使就诊次数增加了一倍；与纯对照组相比则增至三倍（5.5%对1.9%）。这些巨大的影响具有很高的成本效益，其作用机制在于提高显著性（凸显效应）和降低交易成本。
Abstract
Increasing public service take-up is a critical challenge. We invested in a government-run digital appointment system for an important health screening service and conducted a large-scale experiment encouraging its use, specifically assessing the influence of transactions costs and information. Using administrative records on the near-universe of eligible women (47,600) in Uruguay’s capital city, we randomized invitations to book with our digital-system or as-usual with local clinics. Digital encouragements doubled medical visits versus as-usual invitations, and tripled compared to a pure control group (5.5 % versus 1.9 %) over 16 weeks. These large impacts are highly cost-effective, mediated by salience and reduced transactions costs.