When financial incentives backfire: Evidence from a community health worker experiment in Uganda

There is growing support for an entrepreneurial community health worker (CHW) model, but the benefits of such a design are unclear. We randomly assigned CHWs in Uganda to sell treatment for child diarrhea door-to-door and retain the profits or to deliver treatment to homes for free. We find that, despite stronger financial incentives, the entrepreneurial model led to substantially less effort (fewer household visits) than the free delivery...