ArticleJournal of development economics2020
Performance bonuses in the public sector: Winner-take-all prizes versus proportional payments to reduce child malnutrition in India.
Article in Journal of development economics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Paying for performance to improve the delivery of health interventions in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Evaluation of a results-based financing nutrition intervention for tuberculosis patients in Madhya Pradesh, India, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC global and public health · 2023Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
We conduct a randomized trial to compare incentives for improved child outcomes among salaried caregivers in Chandigarh, India. A contest whose prize is divided among workers in proportion to measured gains yielded more improvement than a winner-take-all program. In our population of about 2000 children served by 85 workers, using proportional rewards led to weight-for-age malnutrition rates that were 4.3 percentage points lower at 3 months (when rewards were paid) and 5.9 points lower at 6 months (after the contest had ended), with mean weight-for-age z scores that were 0.071 higher at 3 months, and 0.095 higher at 6 months. Proportional bonuses led to larger and more sustained gains because of better performance by lower-ranked workers, whose efforts were not rewarded by a winner-take-all prize. Results are consistent with previous laboratory trials and athletic events, demonstrating the value of proportional rewards to improve development outcomes.
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