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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Applying an eMASS Customization Program as a Research Tool to Evaluate Consumer Benefits
08:27

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Published on: September 27, 2019

Right-sizing Incentives

Edward N Okeke1, Isa S Abubakar2

  • 1Pardee RAND Graduate School and Department of Economics, Sociology and Statistics, RAND, 1200 South Hayes, Arlington, VA 22202.

Journal of Development Economics
|August 6, 2026
PubMed

This paper presents results from a field experiment in Nigeria in which expectant mothers were offered cash payments of N2500, N4000 or N10000 conditioned on using formal medical care. A secondary intervention provided some mothers with an information signal about their pregnancy risk. We find highly non-linear effects of conditional payments-most of the incentive effect occurs on the extensive margin, with rapidly diminishing returns to incentive size. We also uncover new spillover effects: showing that incentives increase healthcare use in childhood by index children and by other children in the household. We find largely null effects of the information signal.

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