TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Grimm, Michael
AU  - Hartwig, Renate
        TI  - Unblurring the Market for Vision Correction: A Willingness to Pay Experiment in Rural Burkina Faso
        PY  - 2018/Oct/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11929
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11929
        AB  - We assess the willingness to pay (WTP) for eyeglasses in an adult population in rural Burkina Faso using a variant of the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) method. We combine the BDM approach with video and deferred payment options to analyze the role of information and liquidity constraints. Furthermore, we exploit variation in reservation and transaction prices to study potential screening and sunk cost effects. Our main results show that, consistent with the over-exclusion perspective documented for essential health products, the willingness to pay for glasses is low, amounting to 20% of the current market price. Information provided through a video raises the willingness to pay for corrective glasses by 16%. In contrast, deferred payment does not affect the willingness to pay. Finally, we find no evidence of screening or sunk cost effects. Overall our results lend support to subsidization of eyeglasses in a resource poor setting.
        KW  - eyeglasses
KW  - liquidity constraint
KW  - Burkina Faso
KW  - information constraint
KW  - willingness to pay
        ER  -