Attention and mitigation of disease : theory and evidence from Tanzania

This thesis seeks to gain a deeper understanding of public good production in developmental settings. This thesis comprises of five chapters. The first chapter provides an introduction and a literature review to build a case for further studies in public good production in general and disease elimination as a public good. Chapter 2 and 3 study two different public good production games. They both provide some insights into the understanding not only of rabies elimination, which is the focus of the experimental part of this thesis, but also on public good production in general. I then discuss policy implications from these results. Chapter 4 provides a report on the result of a field experiment conducted in the Morogoro Rural District of Tanzania. We tested two interventions, namely mobile phone text messaging and religious/tribal leaders advertising in raising participation in rabies vaccination campaigns. Results from the experiment show no evidence that each intervention was effective on their own, but they were effective when implemented together. We also found suggestive evidence that operational changes, designed to ease participation, could potentially have a much larger positive impact on participation than the interventions. We then discuss some contextual factors that could explain these results. Chapter 5 concludes.