In an experiment in Mali, we tested whether patients pressure providers to prescribe unnecessary medical treatment. We varied patients’ information about a discount for antimalarial tablets and measure demand for both tablets and costlier antimalarial injections. We find evidence of patient-driven demand: informing patients about the discount, instead of letting providers decide to share this information, increased discount use by 35 percent and overall malaria treatment by 10 percent. These marginal patients rarely had malaria, worsening the illness-treatment match. Providers did not use the information advantage to sell injections—their use fell in both information conditions. (JEL D83, I11, I12, O15)

中文翻译：

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患者需求是否会导致处方药的过度使用？

在马里的一项实验中，我们测试了患者是否会迫使提供者开出不必要的医疗处方。我们改变了患者关于抗疟药折扣的信息，并衡量了对药片和更昂贵的抗疟注射剂的需求。我们发现了患者驱动需求的证据：告知患者折扣信息，而不是让提供者决定分享这些信息，而是将折扣使用量提高了 35%，将疟疾治疗整体提高了 10%。这些边缘患者很少患有疟疾，从而恶化了疾病治疗的匹配度。提供者没有利用信息优势来销售注射剂——他们的使用在两种信息条件下都有所下降。(JEL D83, I11, I12, O15)