1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,460 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,460 --> 00:00:03,970 Commons license. 3 00:00:03,970 --> 00:00:06,910 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to 4 00:00:06,910 --> 00:00:10,660 offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,660 --> 00:00:13,460 To make a donation or view additional materials from 6 00:00:13,460 --> 00:00:17,390 hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare at 7 00:00:17,390 --> 00:00:18,640 ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:25,732 --> 00:00:33,280 PROFESSOR: What I want to do today is to build on the movie 9 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,010 and the discussion we had last time. 10 00:00:36,010 --> 00:00:40,970 So I think in the movie, a lot of themes appear that are also 11 00:00:40,970 --> 00:00:44,030 in the chapter on health, if you've read it. 12 00:00:44,030 --> 00:00:47,650 A lot of the themes are kind there, but in sort of some 13 00:00:47,650 --> 00:00:48,870 random way. 14 00:00:48,870 --> 00:00:52,200 And in the discussion we have had, we also have elaborated 15 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,050 on the themes, but now what I want to do is to try and put 16 00:00:56,050 --> 00:00:59,330 them all together in a coherent frame, give you a bit 17 00:00:59,330 --> 00:01:06,190 more of specific examples that are in the book specifically. 18 00:01:06,190 --> 00:01:10,550 And we're, of course, going to be talking about health in 19 00:01:10,550 --> 00:01:16,220 particular with the angle of how people choose which health 20 00:01:16,220 --> 00:01:20,180 care to access, how people choose what doctors to see for 21 00:01:20,180 --> 00:01:25,620 what, why people are not doing more preventive care in 22 00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:27,690 investments, and things like that. 23 00:01:27,690 --> 00:01:29,870 Obviously, we are not doctors, so we are not talking about 24 00:01:29,870 --> 00:01:32,680 health from the point of view of what could treat people. 25 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:36,310 We are taking this as given, and then wonder how do we get 26 00:01:36,310 --> 00:01:38,960 this stuff that can treat people out 27 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:41,710 there in the landscape. 28 00:01:41,710 --> 00:01:43,050 So we start with these things. 29 00:01:43,050 --> 00:01:47,320 They are some technologies that are known, that have been 30 00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:48,660 demonstrated in [INAUDIBLE] 31 00:01:48,660 --> 00:01:53,200 trials to be effective and cheap ways to 32 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,720 promote good health. 33 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:02,220 Some examples of that include bed nets to prevent malaria, 34 00:02:02,220 --> 00:02:08,960 would include immunization, which costs a maximum of maybe 35 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:12,610 $15 to $20 per child, and it's one of the cheapest ways to 36 00:02:12,610 --> 00:02:15,730 prevent child death. 37 00:02:15,730 --> 00:02:19,730 Breast feeding, which of course is free and is 38 00:02:19,730 --> 00:02:24,510 recommended by WHO to be done from one hour after birth 39 00:02:24,510 --> 00:02:28,350 until six months, at least in places where the water is not 40 00:02:28,350 --> 00:02:30,680 very clean. 41 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:36,020 Oral rehydration solution, which is basically a mix of 42 00:02:36,020 --> 00:02:41,960 sugar and salt that you put in water when they kid comes with 43 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:42,980 acute diarrhea. 44 00:02:42,980 --> 00:02:45,690 That's not going to cure whatever caused the diarrhea, 45 00:02:45,690 --> 00:02:48,740 but it's going to prevent dehydration, which is the main 46 00:02:48,740 --> 00:02:51,150 reason why people die of diarrhea. 47 00:02:51,150 --> 00:02:54,990 And bleach, chlorine, that you put in your water. 48 00:02:54,990 --> 00:02:58,700 These are just a few examples of things that have been 49 00:02:58,700 --> 00:03:01,660 demonstrated to be effective, and cost-effective, and cheap, 50 00:03:01,660 --> 00:03:03,440 and accessible. 51 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:09,470 And one of the major puzzle and frustration that we see in 52 00:03:09,470 --> 00:03:14,170 world health is that these investments just don't really 53 00:03:14,170 --> 00:03:19,070 reach people, are not really undertaken by people. 54 00:03:19,070 --> 00:03:21,660 And so the question is, why? 55 00:03:21,660 --> 00:03:25,180 It's certainly not because they are not useful. 56 00:03:25,180 --> 00:03:27,980 They save lives. 57 00:03:27,980 --> 00:03:30,920 So you could argue what's the value of a life? 58 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:32,330 Maybe it's not so much worth it. 59 00:03:32,330 --> 00:03:35,130 But the value of a life would have been very, very low for 60 00:03:35,130 --> 00:03:37,230 these things not to be worth it. 61 00:03:37,230 --> 00:03:41,590 But even if you leave that behind, conditional on 62 00:03:41,590 --> 00:03:45,850 surviving, you're going to do much better if you have not 63 00:03:45,850 --> 00:03:49,520 been very sick all through your childhood. 64 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:51,100 We've seen that for deworming. 65 00:03:51,100 --> 00:03:54,100 We've seen that if kids were dewormed when they were 66 00:03:54,100 --> 00:03:56,750 children, they were not sick with worms, they are making 67 00:03:56,750 --> 00:04:00,210 23% more every year, which sounds to be like a 68 00:04:00,210 --> 00:04:01,820 fantastically good rate of return. 69 00:04:01,820 --> 00:04:11,020 We're talking about the maybe $1,400 in current dollars over 70 00:04:11,020 --> 00:04:15,420 a child's lifetime for an investment of less than $1. 71 00:04:15,420 --> 00:04:19,920 And the same argument that malaria also makes country's 72 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,770 poor and people poor has been made for malaria by Jeff 73 00:04:23,770 --> 00:04:30,870 Sachs, and Gallup who was also a researcher at Harvard at the 74 00:04:30,870 --> 00:04:33,990 time when Sachs was there at the time, found that if you 75 00:04:33,990 --> 00:04:36,850 control for other factors, malarial countries, the 76 00:04:36,850 --> 00:04:40,070 countries where malaria is prevalent, have a GDP that is 77 00:04:40,070 --> 00:04:42,860 30% lower than non-malarial countries. 78 00:04:42,860 --> 00:04:44,360 And what are the other factors? 79 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:48,890 They are geography, latitude, the climate, things like that. 80 00:04:48,890 --> 00:04:54,980 You can actually see it on a map from Gallup and Sachs 81 00:04:54,980 --> 00:04:58,720 where it shows where malaria is prevalent, at least where 82 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,040 it was in 1965. 83 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:07,890 And you can see that there is a fair amount of bad luck that 84 00:05:07,890 --> 00:05:09,340 is involved with malaria. 85 00:05:09,340 --> 00:05:12,140 If you're in between the topics, you're just much more 86 00:05:12,140 --> 00:05:15,560 likely to be infected with malaria simply because this is 87 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,730 environment where the mosquitoes that carry the 88 00:05:18,730 --> 00:05:20,350 malaria thrive. 89 00:05:20,350 --> 00:05:24,380 So there used to be a lot of malaria in Latin America. 90 00:05:24,380 --> 00:05:27,080 There used to be malaria in the American South once upon a 91 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,800 time, which is somewhat above the tropic. 92 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,440 But otherwise, most of the malaria is in Africa, Latin 93 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:38,990 America, India, and Southeast Asia. 94 00:05:38,990 --> 00:05:41,350 Keep this figure in mind, that this is 95 00:05:41,350 --> 00:05:42,510 where malaria is important. 96 00:05:42,510 --> 00:05:45,850 And now if we look at GDP in 1994-- 97 00:05:45,850 --> 00:05:48,630 oh no, that's malaria in 1994-- it got 98 00:05:48,630 --> 00:05:50,640 better in Latin America. 99 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:52,570 It didn't get much better in Africa. 100 00:05:52,570 --> 00:05:54,440 It got worse in India. 101 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:58,200 And this is GDP per capita in 1995. 102 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:02,990 And you can see that you have a striking reversal of the 103 00:06:02,990 --> 00:06:06,750 colors, which is the countries that are very dark in the 104 00:06:06,750 --> 00:06:10,210 malaria picture are now very light in the 105 00:06:10,210 --> 00:06:12,330 GDP per capita picture. 106 00:06:12,330 --> 00:06:16,880 So the results that he found in the regression, [INAUDIBLE] 107 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,290 statistical bells and whistles, is just translation 108 00:06:20,290 --> 00:06:23,690 of that picture that basically the dark countries in the 109 00:06:23,690 --> 00:06:28,130 malaria picture are the light countries in the GDP picture. 110 00:06:28,130 --> 00:06:30,240 So that is no doubt about this fact. 111 00:06:33,130 --> 00:06:35,740 So on the [INAUDIBLE], this article was very influential. 112 00:06:35,740 --> 00:06:38,400 It was published in 2001. 113 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:43,400 Was very influential to bring a push for the fight against 114 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:51,820 malaria as an economic type of intervention that has a decent 115 00:06:51,820 --> 00:06:52,720 rate of return. 116 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,760 Naturally you should do not for compassion value, but for 117 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,710 economic purpose, fight malaria, use bed nets and 118 00:06:58,710 --> 00:07:00,100 things like that. 119 00:07:00,100 --> 00:07:03,390 Now some people obviously objected to that, saying, 120 00:07:03,390 --> 00:07:07,460 well, that's not necessarily a proof that malaria 121 00:07:07,460 --> 00:07:10,210 causes the low GDP. 122 00:07:10,210 --> 00:07:13,010 And what else could be going on? 123 00:07:13,010 --> 00:07:14,490 What else did they argue was going on? 124 00:07:17,442 --> 00:07:20,886 AUDIENCE: Is it possible that is poor so it isn't able to 125 00:07:20,886 --> 00:07:22,854 fight malaria? 126 00:07:22,854 --> 00:07:27,036 So it has malaria because it has [INAUDIBLE] below GDP, not 127 00:07:27,036 --> 00:07:27,920 the other way around? 128 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:28,170 PROFESSOR: Exactly. 129 00:07:28,170 --> 00:07:30,690 It cold be that it takes some money to fight malaria. 130 00:07:30,690 --> 00:07:33,190 In fact, that's exactly what Sachs is arguing, that it 131 00:07:33,190 --> 00:07:35,860 takes some money to fight malaria, so we need to help 132 00:07:35,860 --> 00:07:37,290 the poor country. 133 00:07:37,290 --> 00:07:40,920 And in fact, when you look at the countries that got malaria 134 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:46,270 in 1965 and don't get it in '94, or if you look at the 135 00:07:46,270 --> 00:07:50,370 country that had little of malaria in '65 and have a lot 136 00:07:50,370 --> 00:07:55,020 in '94, this is some kind of tracking pattern. 137 00:07:55,020 --> 00:07:57,120 Basically, it mostly disappeared-- 138 00:07:57,120 --> 00:07:59,020 not entirely, but mostly disappeared-- 139 00:07:59,020 --> 00:08:04,160 in Latin America between 1965 and 1994, and nothing happened 140 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:06,520 in most of Africa. 141 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:10,130 In India, it actually increased between 1965 and 142 00:08:10,130 --> 00:08:15,050 1994, but the same increase didn't happen in Sri Lanka, 143 00:08:15,050 --> 00:08:17,020 which is the little dot that is next to 144 00:08:17,020 --> 00:08:19,160 India on the map here. 145 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:23,640 So why is it the case that given the similar geographic 146 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:26,800 circumstances, in a sense, Latin America managed to get 147 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:28,880 rid of malaria, but not Africa? 148 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:32,129 Why is it the case that malaria increased in India in 149 00:08:32,129 --> 00:08:34,270 the same time it reduced in Sri Lanka? 150 00:08:34,270 --> 00:08:36,419 That's not entirely explained by geography. 151 00:08:36,419 --> 00:08:39,435 In fact, for the most part, it's not explain by geography. 152 00:08:39,435 --> 00:08:42,919 It is explained by the fact that in Latin America, there 153 00:08:42,919 --> 00:08:47,820 have been very sustained, large effort to fight malaria 154 00:08:47,820 --> 00:08:51,120 that we are going to talk about in a moment. 155 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:53,030 They just basically sprayed extremely 156 00:08:53,030 --> 00:08:55,070 aggressively with DDT. 157 00:08:55,070 --> 00:08:56,370 They drained the swamps. 158 00:08:56,370 --> 00:08:58,750 They did all sorts of things like that which managed to 159 00:08:58,750 --> 00:09:02,040 control malaria, and they managed to do it. 160 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,110 And the same thing happened in Sri Lanka. 161 00:09:04,110 --> 00:09:08,330 So if you compare Sri Lanka, for example, and Tamil Nadu, 162 00:09:08,330 --> 00:09:11,180 which is the part of India that just faces Sri Lanka, for 163 00:09:11,180 --> 00:09:13,670 the most part has the same people-- 164 00:09:13,670 --> 00:09:15,945 at least part of Sri Lanka is Tamil, even though they are 165 00:09:15,945 --> 00:09:19,870 not very pleased to be there-- 166 00:09:19,870 --> 00:09:23,940 in Sri Lanka you had very aggressive control of malaria 167 00:09:23,940 --> 00:09:26,080 and pretty much the disappearance of malaria. 168 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,620 In the meantime, in Tamil Nadu, right next door with a 169 00:09:28,620 --> 00:09:31,060 similar climate, your get if anything 170 00:09:31,060 --> 00:09:32,910 an increase of malaria. 171 00:09:32,910 --> 00:09:35,240 And so this is not due to geography or anything. 172 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:39,020 This is due to politics, and your ability to organize your 173 00:09:39,020 --> 00:09:41,140 people, and to organize your country, and to 174 00:09:41,140 --> 00:09:43,120 get something done. 175 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:46,790 And so it is likely to be the case that if you're able to 176 00:09:46,790 --> 00:09:49,260 get something done to control malaria, you're just able to 177 00:09:49,260 --> 00:09:53,230 get something done in general. 178 00:09:53,230 --> 00:09:55,380 And if you're not able to get something done with malaria, 179 00:09:55,380 --> 00:09:58,110 you're not able to get something done in general. 180 00:09:58,110 --> 00:10:02,020 So maybe the same countries-- and this is not only true for 181 00:10:02,020 --> 00:10:02,700 Sri Lanka-- 182 00:10:02,700 --> 00:10:05,510 that at the same time they managed to control malaria, 183 00:10:05,510 --> 00:10:09,520 they were also extremely effective in getting out 184 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,050 preventive care for their people, immunizations for 185 00:10:12,050 --> 00:10:14,980 their people, preschools, and things like that. 186 00:10:14,980 --> 00:10:19,185 So Sri Lanka has a lot of political problems, but from 187 00:10:19,185 --> 00:10:23,610 the point of view of a country that delivers social services 188 00:10:23,610 --> 00:10:26,690 to their country, it's actually quite effective. 189 00:10:26,690 --> 00:10:29,770 So it's certainly the same countries that have managed to 190 00:10:29,770 --> 00:10:31,940 control malaria have managed to do other good things, and 191 00:10:31,940 --> 00:10:35,030 maybe this is why they have [INAUDIBLE] in 1995. 192 00:10:35,030 --> 00:10:37,910 So on its own, this correlation is certainly not 193 00:10:37,910 --> 00:10:41,360 sufficient to tell us that there is a cause. 194 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:46,600 So before moving further, I want to be able to answer this 195 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,730 question, which is we know that the malarial countries 196 00:10:49,730 --> 00:10:53,100 are 30% poorer than the non-malarial countries. 197 00:10:53,100 --> 00:10:58,340 To what extent can we say it is due to malaria, and to what 198 00:10:58,340 --> 00:11:03,660 extent is this the reverse causality that the countries 199 00:11:03,660 --> 00:11:07,810 that were good at controlling malaria also managed to do 200 00:11:07,810 --> 00:11:09,060 other good things? 201 00:11:11,230 --> 00:11:18,080 And we can answer this question precisely by looking 202 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,730 at those episodes where my malaria was eradicated, 203 00:11:21,730 --> 00:11:26,830 because malaria was eradicated by very clear, specific action 204 00:11:26,830 --> 00:11:29,810 that was taken at some point in those countries. 205 00:11:29,810 --> 00:11:34,020 And there are a series of papers, one on the Americas, 206 00:11:34,020 --> 00:11:40,730 which is the one we are going to study now, one on what is 207 00:11:40,730 --> 00:11:42,340 called malarial peripheries-- 208 00:11:42,340 --> 00:11:46,650 so that's Paraguay, Sri Lanka, and one in India-- 209 00:11:46,650 --> 00:11:50,120 that looks at those eradication campaigns and 210 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:53,950 tries to look at what is the impact for a child of having 211 00:11:53,950 --> 00:11:58,780 been born in a place that used to be malarial after the 212 00:11:58,780 --> 00:12:00,890 eradication campaign rather than before. 213 00:12:03,570 --> 00:12:10,320 So let's look at a very nice study that is the study about 214 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:11,660 Latin America. 215 00:12:11,660 --> 00:12:14,240 It's a study by a researcher in Chicago called Hoyt 216 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:20,710 Bleakley, and what he looks at is DDT spraying. 217 00:12:20,710 --> 00:12:23,570 This is also interesting because actually the question 218 00:12:23,570 --> 00:12:28,030 of DDT spraying is a pretty controversial one today, 219 00:12:28,030 --> 00:12:31,080 because it's now pretty much forbidden anywhere to spray 220 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:35,470 anything with DDT, because it's not very good for you to 221 00:12:35,470 --> 00:12:37,480 eat food that has been sprayed with DDT. 222 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:40,440 On the other hand, maybe it's also not very good for you to 223 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:41,230 get malaria. 224 00:12:41,230 --> 00:12:41,500 [LAUGHTER] 225 00:12:41,500 --> 00:12:44,220 PROFESSOR: So there is a little bit of a conflict 226 00:12:44,220 --> 00:12:47,530 between those two objectives with a lot of people are 227 00:12:47,530 --> 00:12:50,430 saying we should go back to DDT and a lot of 228 00:12:50,430 --> 00:12:51,930 people saying no. 229 00:12:51,930 --> 00:12:55,370 For example, there is a huge political fight in Uganda 230 00:12:55,370 --> 00:12:58,610 between the organic farmers and the rest of the country, 231 00:12:58,610 --> 00:12:59,420 essentially. 232 00:12:59,420 --> 00:13:03,130 The organic farmers don't want any DDT anywhere near their 233 00:13:03,130 --> 00:13:06,660 crop, obviously, because in that case the European 234 00:13:06,660 --> 00:13:12,360 community would put a stop on their export to 235 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:14,160 other European Union. 236 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:17,580 And so any effort of eradicating malaria with 237 00:13:17,580 --> 00:13:20,990 spraying of DDT has been stopped in Uganda. 238 00:13:20,990 --> 00:13:24,850 But at the time, they were not so worried about that, so 239 00:13:24,850 --> 00:13:28,570 there was a big eradication campaign in Latin America that 240 00:13:28,570 --> 00:13:33,070 started around 1955 partly with international funding. 241 00:13:33,070 --> 00:13:35,860 And so they sprayed everywhere, and they made sure 242 00:13:35,860 --> 00:13:37,660 to try and get rid of malaria everywhere. 243 00:13:37,660 --> 00:13:43,010 They even sprayed under people's roofs, like in the 244 00:13:43,010 --> 00:13:45,100 eaves of a house, the mosquito's 245 00:13:45,100 --> 00:13:46,980 nest under the roof. 246 00:13:46,980 --> 00:13:50,670 So they went there and put the DDT there, which is probably 247 00:13:50,670 --> 00:13:53,590 not excellent for people's health directly, but very bad 248 00:13:53,590 --> 00:13:54,840 for the mosquitoes for sure. 249 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:02,980 What the Bleakley study does is to exploit the fact that if 250 00:14:02,980 --> 00:14:05,880 you started in a region where there was not so malaria to 251 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:09,330 start with, then the decline in malaria was lower. 252 00:14:09,330 --> 00:14:13,850 So here is one example for Columbia. 253 00:14:13,850 --> 00:14:18,330 This is cases of malaria in Colombia by year. 254 00:14:18,330 --> 00:14:21,400 You can see that in 1950, you had a lot of malaria cases 255 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:22,630 every year. 256 00:14:22,630 --> 00:14:26,820 The campaign started roughly in 1955. 257 00:14:26,820 --> 00:14:31,900 Intensive spraying started in 1958, and you start getting a 258 00:14:31,900 --> 00:14:35,680 huge drop in the cases of malaria country-wide. 259 00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:36,800 So it's pretty effective. 260 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:42,200 Basically you go from 600 cases, I think it's a month, 261 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:46,060 to about nothing, to close to nothing, and that happened in 262 00:14:46,060 --> 00:14:49,100 a very short period of time. 263 00:14:49,100 --> 00:14:52,660 You could look at people born on those times, but of course, 264 00:14:52,660 --> 00:14:54,870 other things happen over time, so we don't really 265 00:14:54,870 --> 00:14:56,710 want to do that only. 266 00:14:56,710 --> 00:15:00,790 But what you can do then is to say, well, now let's look at 267 00:15:00,790 --> 00:15:06,050 regions that got more malaria before the campaign, and this 268 00:15:06,050 --> 00:15:08,400 is the reduction in the number of malaria 269 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:10,710 cases in those regions. 270 00:15:10,710 --> 00:15:13,650 And of course, the more malaria you got, the bigger 271 00:15:13,650 --> 00:15:16,010 the reduction, because the reduction was 272 00:15:16,010 --> 00:15:17,880 pretty much to zero. 273 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,220 So if you started with 100, you get about 100% reduction, 274 00:15:21,220 --> 00:15:22,770 like in this place, Choco. 275 00:15:22,770 --> 00:15:25,530 If you started with no malaria at all, t then you get no 276 00:15:25,530 --> 00:15:28,300 reduction because there was nowhere to go. 277 00:15:28,300 --> 00:15:31,370 It's a little bit like the anemia 278 00:15:31,370 --> 00:15:32,290 paper that we saw before. 279 00:15:32,290 --> 00:15:35,380 If you started anemic, then getting the pill makes you 280 00:15:35,380 --> 00:15:37,720 non-anemic, but if you're non-anemic, you don't benefit. 281 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:39,220 Same thing here. 282 00:15:39,220 --> 00:15:41,860 This graph is by region, so these are 283 00:15:41,860 --> 00:15:42,520 all different regions-- 284 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:45,300 Choco, Cauca, Narino, Santander-- 285 00:15:45,300 --> 00:15:47,240 these are all regions. 286 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:52,860 And you can see that the regions that had a lot of 287 00:15:52,860 --> 00:15:56,310 malaria before the eradication got the biggest reduction 288 00:15:56,310 --> 00:15:59,180 between the post-campaign to the pre-campaign. 289 00:15:59,180 --> 00:16:02,760 So this is the reduction in cases, and this is where you 290 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:04,650 started from. 291 00:16:04,650 --> 00:16:09,050 So now what it's going to look at is it the case-- take a 292 00:16:09,050 --> 00:16:14,580 child who was born and who was still a child before the 293 00:16:14,580 --> 00:16:18,890 eradication campaign started, and take a child who was born 294 00:16:18,890 --> 00:16:21,560 after the eradication campaign. 295 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:25,690 So take a child who was, let's say, 10 by 1960 and a child 296 00:16:25,690 --> 00:16:27,980 who was born in 1962. 297 00:16:27,980 --> 00:16:31,730 And the child who is 10 by 1960 doesn't benefit from the 298 00:16:31,730 --> 00:16:35,580 campaign whatsoever, but the child who was born in 1962, by 299 00:16:35,580 --> 00:16:38,090 the time he's born, malaria is history. 300 00:16:38,090 --> 00:16:43,230 So the young child relative to the old child would benefit 301 00:16:43,230 --> 00:16:46,810 more in a region where malaria was a big problem than in a 302 00:16:46,810 --> 00:16:49,390 region when it was a small problem. 303 00:16:49,390 --> 00:16:53,560 So what he is going to do next is to put on the y-axis here 304 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,940 not the reduction in malaria cases, but how much these 305 00:16:56,940 --> 00:17:01,630 people make as adult, how much a child born after the 306 00:17:01,630 --> 00:17:04,290 campaign makes relative to a child 307 00:17:04,290 --> 00:17:05,330 born before the campaign. 308 00:17:05,330 --> 00:17:08,424 What is this difference in income between this, and is 309 00:17:08,424 --> 00:17:13,500 the difference in income related to the 310 00:17:13,500 --> 00:17:15,230 malaria at the beginning. 311 00:17:15,230 --> 00:17:18,660 This is called a difference in difference, because you're 312 00:17:18,660 --> 00:17:21,869 looking at whether the difference in earning between 313 00:17:21,869 --> 00:17:26,339 a young and an old cohort is different in places that start 314 00:17:26,339 --> 00:17:28,500 from a higher level. 315 00:17:28,500 --> 00:17:31,060 What you are assuming when you're doing that is that 316 00:17:31,060 --> 00:17:33,780 there are no other factors that are changing exactly at 317 00:17:33,780 --> 00:17:36,650 the same time in the same way, and we're going to see what we 318 00:17:36,650 --> 00:17:39,330 can say about that. 319 00:17:39,330 --> 00:17:43,500 Here is this graph that I was talking about for Brazil now. 320 00:17:43,500 --> 00:17:46,480 This is the pre-campaign malaria intensity. 321 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:47,920 Don't worry about the axis. 322 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:52,530 It's sort of standardized at zero, so for zero being the 323 00:17:52,530 --> 00:17:53,790 median case. 324 00:17:53,790 --> 00:17:59,030 And this is the income change of those born in 1960, that is 325 00:17:59,030 --> 00:18:02,530 those who were born after the campaign, minus those who were 326 00:18:02,530 --> 00:18:03,626 born in 1953. 327 00:18:03,626 --> 00:18:05,680 It is their income later. 328 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,720 We measure the income much later, in 1980, for example. 329 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,980 So in 1980, we measure the income of those born in 1960 330 00:18:13,980 --> 00:18:17,620 minus the income of those in 1953. 331 00:18:17,620 --> 00:18:22,050 This is all in log, so it's log income in 1960 minus log 332 00:18:22,050 --> 00:18:24,060 income in 1953. 333 00:18:24,060 --> 00:18:26,700 And what we see is exactly what we would expect if 334 00:18:26,700 --> 00:18:30,670 malaria does make you poor, which is the people who were 335 00:18:30,670 --> 00:18:34,930 born in places like Mato Grosso here where malaria had 336 00:18:34,930 --> 00:18:39,300 been a huge deal beforehand, the young people experience a 337 00:18:39,300 --> 00:18:42,580 bigger increase in earnings relative to the old people 338 00:18:42,580 --> 00:18:46,240 than people, say, in Bahia where malaria was not a big 339 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:47,810 deal to start with. 340 00:18:47,810 --> 00:18:49,060 Do you understand this graph? 341 00:18:53,070 --> 00:18:56,190 So I'm arguing that nothing else changed between this 342 00:18:56,190 --> 00:19:00,340 cohort in a way that's related with malaria intensity, and 343 00:19:00,340 --> 00:19:01,750 what could you argue back to me? 344 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,757 What is the worry with that assumption? 345 00:19:10,757 --> 00:19:14,499 AUDIENCE: There might be a lot of other factors that have 346 00:19:14,499 --> 00:19:16,246 changed over time. 347 00:19:16,246 --> 00:19:22,234 I mean, if you're born in the '60s, then [INAUDIBLE] 348 00:19:31,096 --> 00:19:33,606 PROFESSOR: Yes. so the worry is something else 349 00:19:33,606 --> 00:19:34,836 might happen over time. 350 00:19:34,836 --> 00:19:38,280 AUDIENCE: I was going to say, sort of similarly that there's 351 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:41,232 probably a third, external factor that's both raising 352 00:19:41,232 --> 00:19:43,692 income and decreasing malaria at the same time. 353 00:19:43,692 --> 00:19:46,152 Since they have the same effects, it's not necessarily 354 00:19:46,152 --> 00:19:47,628 that they're affecting one another. 355 00:19:47,628 --> 00:19:49,550 There's a third thing that's affecting both of them. 356 00:19:49,550 --> 00:19:50,030 PROFESSOR: Right. 357 00:19:50,030 --> 00:19:52,480 So it could be something affecting both of them, so 358 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,510 Brazil is just becoming generally richer over time. 359 00:19:55,510 --> 00:19:59,470 But this should be something that is affecting 360 00:19:59,470 --> 00:20:03,370 disproportionally Mato Grosso than Bahia, right? 361 00:20:03,370 --> 00:20:07,220 Because here, I'm not only telling you that income 362 00:20:07,220 --> 00:20:08,960 increases between these two cohorts. 363 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:13,100 I'm also telling you that increases faster in the region 364 00:20:13,100 --> 00:20:15,520 that had more malaria to start with. 365 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,870 But you could ask me, for example, is it the case that 366 00:20:18,870 --> 00:20:21,520 this place was poorer in the beginning, so they had more 367 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:22,960 places to go? 368 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,780 As Brazil was becoming richer, the poorer regions were 369 00:20:25,780 --> 00:20:28,350 catching up with the older regions, and this is what I 370 00:20:28,350 --> 00:20:30,670 see here, just to catch up. 371 00:20:30,670 --> 00:20:31,740 So that could be. 372 00:20:31,740 --> 00:20:34,450 It's kind of one twist to the point that both of you made, 373 00:20:34,450 --> 00:20:38,100 which is as Brazil was growing, maybe it is possible 374 00:20:38,100 --> 00:20:41,330 that this region would have been growing more anyway. 375 00:20:41,330 --> 00:20:43,960 Now of course, I'm looking at the income in 1980s, but these 376 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:48,130 are different cohorts, so maybe the same places that had 377 00:20:48,130 --> 00:20:50,140 a lot of malaria had people who were 378 00:20:50,140 --> 00:20:51,890 not very well educated. 379 00:20:51,890 --> 00:20:54,250 And at the same times that I took care of malaria, I also 380 00:20:54,250 --> 00:20:57,177 built a lot of schools for them, and I'm seeing these 381 00:20:57,177 --> 00:21:01,150 guys are income increased relative to the older ones. 382 00:21:01,150 --> 00:21:02,820 It's just because I also built a lot of 383 00:21:02,820 --> 00:21:03,850 schools in Mato Grosso. 384 00:21:03,850 --> 00:21:05,680 So that would be your third factor that would be 385 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,200 differentially important in the region. 386 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,870 So that is obviously a real concern. 387 00:21:10,870 --> 00:21:14,520 By looking at changes in income over the importance of 388 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,370 malaria at the beginning, we've gone one step towards 389 00:21:17,370 --> 00:21:18,780 some credibility. 390 00:21:18,780 --> 00:21:22,310 We're still very far from our randomized trial, which would 391 00:21:22,310 --> 00:21:25,530 involve randomly treating some people for malaria, waiting 20 392 00:21:25,530 --> 00:21:27,900 years, and seeing how much more money they make like they 393 00:21:27,900 --> 00:21:29,490 did with the deworming. 394 00:21:29,490 --> 00:21:33,460 Such that it doesn't exist, so we need to try to do the best 395 00:21:33,460 --> 00:21:35,120 with what we have. 396 00:21:35,120 --> 00:21:41,200 One way to verify this is that we actually know exactly when 397 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:45,160 people start getting treated for malaria, because the 398 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:50,620 campaign, if you go back to this graph, was quite sudden. 399 00:21:50,620 --> 00:21:53,880 In fact, we know the date at which they started spraying, 400 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:58,540 and so we should have a pretty clear idea of which cohort get 401 00:21:58,540 --> 00:22:02,090 exposed and which cohort are not exposed. 402 00:22:02,090 --> 00:22:06,930 So instead of doing this kind of graph for a broad cohort 403 00:22:06,930 --> 00:22:11,080 and looking at the slope here, I could say, well, let me do a 404 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:14,730 test, for example, if I did the same graph for those born 405 00:22:14,730 --> 00:22:19,990 in 1953 versus those born in 1950. 406 00:22:19,990 --> 00:22:26,050 If this graph was due to the decline of malaria, what would 407 00:22:26,050 --> 00:22:30,180 I expect if I, instead of doing these differences, I did 408 00:22:30,180 --> 00:22:34,120 1953 minus 1950? 409 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:37,580 What should I expect for my line if the only reason why I 410 00:22:37,580 --> 00:22:40,240 have an increasing line here is due to the 411 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,560 reduction in malaria? 412 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:44,946 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 413 00:22:44,946 --> 00:22:46,310 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 414 00:22:46,310 --> 00:22:48,870 I should expect a flat line, exactly. 415 00:22:48,870 --> 00:22:52,370 Because the 1953 kids I exposed to malaria. 416 00:22:52,370 --> 00:22:54,130 So are the 1950. 417 00:22:54,130 --> 00:22:57,270 So the differences between their income should not be 418 00:22:57,270 --> 00:22:58,810 related to how much malaria there is 419 00:22:58,810 --> 00:23:00,345 because no one benefited. 420 00:23:00,345 --> 00:23:08,070 Now if instead I'm taking kids who were born in 1950, so in 421 00:23:08,070 --> 00:23:13,090 1970, and I'm comparing them to the wages of kid born in 422 00:23:13,090 --> 00:23:19,760 1965, what should I expect for this line? 423 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:22,390 Now I'm looking at very young kids, kids born 424 00:23:22,390 --> 00:23:36,170 in 1970 versus 1965. 425 00:23:36,170 --> 00:23:38,454 So we can go back to this graph here. 426 00:23:41,590 --> 00:23:46,450 What's the pattern in malaria cases after the 1970? 427 00:23:46,450 --> 00:23:47,665 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 428 00:23:47,665 --> 00:23:49,865 PROFESSOR: Yeah, there is no further decline because there 429 00:23:49,865 --> 00:23:50,330 is no malaria left. 430 00:23:50,330 --> 00:23:52,410 AUDIENCE: It should be flat as well, right? 431 00:23:52,410 --> 00:23:52,920 PROFESSOR: Exactly. 432 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:56,030 It should be flat as well, not because everybody has malaria, 433 00:23:56,030 --> 00:23:58,370 but because no one has malaria. 434 00:23:58,370 --> 00:24:02,250 So with malaria, we have a pretty specific pattern as to 435 00:24:02,250 --> 00:24:04,260 when I should start seeing an effect. 436 00:24:04,260 --> 00:24:07,460 If I'm thinking that the big problem of malaria is when you 437 00:24:07,460 --> 00:24:10,190 are very small kids, then I should start seeing a 438 00:24:10,190 --> 00:24:16,340 difference between the children who were born just 439 00:24:16,340 --> 00:24:20,470 before and just after the campaign. 440 00:24:20,470 --> 00:24:22,720 During that time of the campaign scale up, I should 441 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,225 this effect being the larger and larger, but for the young 442 00:24:26,225 --> 00:24:29,540 cohort, it should flatten out if I compare very young cohort 443 00:24:29,540 --> 00:24:32,650 to somewhat younger cohort but all of them got exposed. 444 00:24:32,650 --> 00:24:35,400 And for the old cohort, it should again flatten out, 445 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,320 because the old cohort has not yet been exposed. 446 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,700 So I can now say something more specific than why 447 00:24:41,700 --> 00:24:45,740 generally the very youngest versus the young are the 448 00:24:45,740 --> 00:24:48,020 difference increase in pre-malaria intensity, which 449 00:24:48,020 --> 00:24:49,770 could well be correlated with other things 450 00:24:49,770 --> 00:24:52,720 happening at the same time. 451 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,960 He's doing that, so let me guide you to this graph. 452 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,190 What is this graph? 453 00:24:58,190 --> 00:25:01,030 It has the shape that I talked to you about, right? 454 00:25:01,030 --> 00:25:03,490 It has the shape of being flat, and then increasing, and 455 00:25:03,490 --> 00:25:05,190 then being flat again. 456 00:25:05,190 --> 00:25:07,470 So what is this graph? 457 00:25:07,470 --> 00:25:13,010 Each of these points is the slope of a regression of this 458 00:25:13,010 --> 00:25:20,640 kind, except that instead of being 1960 versus 1953, it is 459 00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,960 one year versus the other. 460 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:36,810 For example, this is everyone relative to the oldest cohort. 461 00:25:36,810 --> 00:25:39,540 Each dot indicates the strength of the relationship 462 00:25:39,540 --> 00:25:43,530 between pre-malaria index and the index for 463 00:25:43,530 --> 00:25:45,320 these particular cohorts. 464 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:53,150 So for example, 1900 versus 1910, 1911, 1912, et cetera. 465 00:25:53,150 --> 00:25:55,830 I'm taking the difference between the income of the 466 00:25:55,830 --> 00:26:02,900 cohort born, say, 1910 minus 1900, and I'm plotting this 467 00:26:02,900 --> 00:26:06,100 graph that is here as a function of 468 00:26:06,100 --> 00:26:09,490 the pre-malaria intensity. 469 00:26:09,490 --> 00:26:15,700 So each of these points here is a slope of a graph that is 470 00:26:15,700 --> 00:26:22,230 this graph with instead of 1960 minus 1953 is, say, 1901 471 00:26:22,230 --> 00:26:28,930 versus 1900, 1902 versus 1900, 1903 versus 1900, et cetera. 472 00:26:28,930 --> 00:26:35,580 And this is plotted as a function of the 1901, 1902, 473 00:26:35,580 --> 00:26:37,770 1903, et cetera, the cohort of both. 474 00:26:37,770 --> 00:26:42,850 So all of these cohorts were cohorts that were not exposed, 475 00:26:42,850 --> 00:26:50,640 and we basically we see not much of a line. 476 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:55,420 This line is superimposed, but if you see this cloud of dots, 477 00:26:55,420 --> 00:26:57,940 the cloud of dots is not increasing. 478 00:26:57,940 --> 00:27:01,510 So the difference is not related to the malaria 479 00:27:01,510 --> 00:27:03,250 intensity in those places. 480 00:27:03,250 --> 00:27:06,530 Those places are generally poor, but it's not correlated 481 00:27:06,530 --> 00:27:08,340 with the malaria intensity. 482 00:27:08,340 --> 00:27:13,090 For the younger cohort, we see the slope keeps increasing. 483 00:27:13,090 --> 00:27:14,890 The slope keeps increasing, keep increasing, keeps 484 00:27:14,890 --> 00:27:18,370 increasing until there is basically no difference 485 00:27:18,370 --> 00:27:23,275 between a region that initially had a lot of malaria 486 00:27:23,275 --> 00:27:26,500 and a region that didn't have a lot of malaria, and then it 487 00:27:26,500 --> 00:27:28,420 flattens again. 488 00:27:28,420 --> 00:27:35,190 So these are the patterns that we were expecting to see where 489 00:27:35,190 --> 00:27:38,220 between the old cohort and the slightly less old cohort we 490 00:27:38,220 --> 00:27:41,760 see no difference until they get exposed to the malaria, 491 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,290 and then it increases, and then it flattens again. 492 00:27:45,290 --> 00:27:49,650 So you could do still have the type of factors that you get 493 00:27:49,650 --> 00:27:51,590 we were talking about, that maybe they were building 494 00:27:51,590 --> 00:27:54,260 schools exactly at the same time, et cetera. 495 00:27:54,260 --> 00:27:57,250 But it would have to be relative tricky to follow 496 00:27:57,250 --> 00:28:03,370 exactly that pattern where this is the pattern of the 497 00:28:03,370 --> 00:28:07,080 malaria campaign going and going and going, and we have 498 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,920 the points pretty much following the expansion of the 499 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,140 malaria campaign. 500 00:28:13,140 --> 00:28:14,890 This is not complete. 501 00:28:14,890 --> 00:28:16,550 You still have to believe that this is the 502 00:28:16,550 --> 00:28:18,300 only thing that happens. 503 00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:20,840 But it gives you a pretty good sense that it must have been 504 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:23,430 the only thing that really happened for this, because 505 00:28:23,430 --> 00:28:26,130 otherwise why would it have this 506 00:28:26,130 --> 00:28:27,490 bizarre-looking snake shape? 507 00:28:31,450 --> 00:28:34,630 Are you all OK with this graph? 508 00:28:34,630 --> 00:28:39,040 And do find it reasonably convincing? 509 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,080 Yes, no? 510 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:42,304 No vote. 511 00:28:42,304 --> 00:28:44,400 I find it reasonably convincing, and I'm in the 512 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:47,400 business of doing [INAUDIBLE], so I'm very skeptical of 513 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,780 anything that might be a substitute to what I do. 514 00:28:50,780 --> 00:28:54,760 But it's hard to imagine another factor that would 515 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,480 follow so nicely the pattern of the campaign. 516 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:05,010 What he does, then, is to run a regression which is based on 517 00:29:05,010 --> 00:29:09,360 this idea, and he concludes that a child exposed to 518 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,770 malaria in childhood would have an income that's 50% 519 00:29:12,770 --> 00:29:17,530 lower than a child who had not been exposed in childhood over 520 00:29:17,530 --> 00:29:18,150 their lifetime. 521 00:29:18,150 --> 00:29:20,630 So it's even better than deworming, which is not 522 00:29:20,630 --> 00:29:22,110 surprising because malaria makes you 523 00:29:22,110 --> 00:29:23,650 sicker than the worms. 524 00:29:23,650 --> 00:29:29,140 But this is a very large effect, so it's high, but it's 525 00:29:29,140 --> 00:29:30,030 not absurdly high. 526 00:29:30,030 --> 00:29:33,620 If you consider that deworming is 23%, we are still in kind 527 00:29:33,620 --> 00:29:35,760 of the ballpark of where it makes sense. 528 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:39,680 So it suggests that childhood malaria actually makes you 529 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,740 weak for the rest of your life, and again we could 530 00:29:42,740 --> 00:29:45,070 calculate what it means for the lifetime of 531 00:29:45,070 --> 00:29:46,720 someone, of an income. 532 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:51,700 So if an increase of 23% of income with deworming make you 533 00:29:51,700 --> 00:29:56,570 about, I think we had found, $1,100 richer or $1,300 534 00:29:56,570 --> 00:30:00,060 richer, this is about twice that over your lifetime. 535 00:30:00,060 --> 00:30:03,130 So if these effects are the same in Kenya, it would mean 536 00:30:03,130 --> 00:30:06,230 that avoiding malaria in childhood would make you 537 00:30:06,230 --> 00:30:10,970 $2,600 richer for your lifetime. 538 00:30:10,970 --> 00:30:16,020 Which brings the question that Zachary has asked at the end 539 00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:18,750 of the deworming lecture, which is if that's so great, 540 00:30:18,750 --> 00:30:21,970 why aren't people are doing it? 541 00:30:21,970 --> 00:30:25,250 So the question here becomes why aren't countries doing it, 542 00:30:25,250 --> 00:30:27,740 and why are people not doing it? 543 00:30:27,740 --> 00:30:31,390 So why aren't countries all doing things like Latin 544 00:30:31,390 --> 00:30:34,670 America did of intensive campaign to try and get rid of 545 00:30:34,670 --> 00:30:37,450 the affliction, so public health kind of measure? 546 00:30:37,450 --> 00:30:39,600 And if they're not going to do it because they all have 547 00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,570 difference or because there is political, economic 548 00:30:42,570 --> 00:30:45,360 consideration that prevents DDT from being used or 549 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,880 anything like that, then why aren't people at least buying 550 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:53,130 a bed net which costs $7 or maybe $10 for a family? 551 00:30:53,130 --> 00:30:55,950 It would mean the child would have a pretty good chance of 552 00:30:55,950 --> 00:30:59,580 being substantially richer over the lifetime. 553 00:30:59,580 --> 00:31:01,600 So that's kind of the mystery. 554 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:06,610 One thing just to close the loop on Sachs is now that you 555 00:31:06,610 --> 00:31:11,350 have this estimate, you can calculate what is malaria 556 00:31:11,350 --> 00:31:13,480 prevalence, in the countries that have a lot of malaria, 557 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,340 how much more these people would make if they didn't have 558 00:31:16,340 --> 00:31:20,450 malaria and obtain a number that is comparable to the 30% 559 00:31:20,450 --> 00:31:23,280 differences that is in the Sachs and Gallup article. 560 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,290 And what you find is a number that is much, much smaller. 561 00:31:26,290 --> 00:31:30,070 So you find that Sachs and Gallup completely overestimate 562 00:31:30,070 --> 00:31:34,410 the impact of malaria on GDP even though the impact on 563 00:31:34,410 --> 00:31:37,000 income is still positive and still quite serious. 564 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,220 So you do find it's not 30%. 565 00:31:40,220 --> 00:31:42,850 I don't want to give you the number and then it happens not 566 00:31:42,850 --> 00:31:44,270 to be the right one, but the order of 567 00:31:44,270 --> 00:31:46,070 magnitude is maybe a fourth. 568 00:31:46,070 --> 00:31:49,170 But it's still pretty significant and important. 569 00:31:49,170 --> 00:31:53,850 So that gives us this idea of why aren't countries spraying 570 00:31:53,850 --> 00:31:57,550 and why aren't people buying bed nets? 571 00:31:57,550 --> 00:32:01,240 This question we could ask over and over and over again. 572 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:06,410 I haven't seen a cross benefit analysis of not getting 573 00:32:06,410 --> 00:32:11,320 diarrhea all the time when you're a child, but presumably 574 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,600 that's something probably similar to the deworming 575 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:18,800 effect because worms are little bit equivalent of 576 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:22,680 diarrhea in terms of getting rid of your nutrition. 577 00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,915 So why aren't people putting bleach in their water? 578 00:32:25,915 --> 00:32:31,800 Why aren't people buying [INAUDIBLE] when they're sick, 579 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:32,820 and things like that. 580 00:32:32,820 --> 00:32:37,700 So this is the mystery we have to ask. 581 00:32:37,700 --> 00:32:40,850 What we have already seen in the previous lecture, and also 582 00:32:40,850 --> 00:32:44,160 a little bit with nutrition, us that preventive care is 583 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,010 characterized by two things. 584 00:32:46,010 --> 00:32:53,110 One is it is very low demand, and the second is it is a high 585 00:32:53,110 --> 00:32:55,970 sensitivity to prices. 586 00:32:55,970 --> 00:32:59,330 Let me show a graph. 587 00:32:59,330 --> 00:33:02,610 This is the highest sensitivity to positive 588 00:33:02,610 --> 00:33:05,930 prices, and I'm going to show you in a moment the high 589 00:33:05,930 --> 00:33:10,180 sensitivity to negative prices, which are incentives. 590 00:33:10,180 --> 00:33:12,700 You've already seen some of these numbers. 591 00:33:12,700 --> 00:33:20,620 You've already seen the red dots, which are coming from 592 00:33:20,620 --> 00:33:23,200 the Dupas experiment in Kenya, so this is this one. 593 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:29,760 This is the graph for bed nets, so when bed nets are 594 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:34,760 free, you pretty much get them, but when you need to pay 595 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:40,150 for them, a little bit of money like $0.60, you're less 596 00:33:40,150 --> 00:33:43,106 likely to get and use them, et cetera. 597 00:33:46,204 --> 00:33:49,790 What is interesting is that we find the same kind of slope, 598 00:33:49,790 --> 00:33:54,800 even steeper, for other goods that are completely different. 599 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,390 So you find the same kind of slope for clothing in Zambia 600 00:33:58,390 --> 00:34:02,010 where if you ask people to pay a little bit for clothing, 601 00:34:02,010 --> 00:34:03,540 they're much less likely to get to it. 602 00:34:03,540 --> 00:34:08,620 So when they start to have to pay $0.10, $0.20, $0.30, the 603 00:34:08,620 --> 00:34:11,630 take up reduces a lot. 604 00:34:11,630 --> 00:34:15,820 You're finding the same thing for deworming in Kenya. 605 00:34:15,820 --> 00:34:18,960 We actually briefly evoked this when we were talking 606 00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:24,350 about deworming when we saw that people in the school 607 00:34:24,350 --> 00:34:27,380 where they did the experiment, at some point the NGO who was 608 00:34:27,380 --> 00:34:34,500 in this sustainability kind of mood, I guess, decided it 609 00:34:34,500 --> 00:34:36,120 makes sense to ask people to pay a 610 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,250 little bit do for deworming. 611 00:34:39,250 --> 00:34:42,690 So they asked people to pay a little bit, and basically what 612 00:34:42,690 --> 00:34:46,469 happened is that the take up went essentially to zero. 613 00:34:46,469 --> 00:34:48,600 Let me try and get the right point. 614 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:50,730 I think this is this one. 615 00:34:50,730 --> 00:34:53,860 The take up went essentially to zero when people had to pay 616 00:34:53,860 --> 00:34:56,010 just a little bit for deworming. 617 00:34:56,010 --> 00:34:57,320 So you're looking at bed nets. 618 00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:58,420 You're looking at clothing. 619 00:34:58,420 --> 00:35:01,250 You're looking at deworming. 620 00:35:01,250 --> 00:35:03,900 They're all very different products presumably with very 621 00:35:03,900 --> 00:35:06,560 different life time benefit, and they pretty much all seem 622 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:08,900 to be on the same slope, which is as soon as people have to 623 00:35:08,900 --> 00:35:12,590 pay just a little bit, they don't do it anymore. 624 00:35:12,590 --> 00:35:13,890 So that's on the negative price. 625 00:35:13,890 --> 00:35:14,330 Yeah? 626 00:35:14,330 --> 00:35:16,214 AUDIENCE: Are some lines steeper because people don't 627 00:35:16,214 --> 00:35:20,086 see the value as much in paying for the other things 628 00:35:20,086 --> 00:35:20,570 [INAUDIBLE] 629 00:35:20,570 --> 00:35:22,870 PROFESSOR: So what is interesting is that except for 630 00:35:22,870 --> 00:35:25,390 this one, all of the lines are pretty steep. 631 00:35:28,660 --> 00:35:31,860 So the question that we have to ask here is why is that? 632 00:35:31,860 --> 00:35:35,150 And one possible reason would clearly be that people don't 633 00:35:35,150 --> 00:35:35,620 see the value. 634 00:35:35,620 --> 00:35:38,140 I'm going to get to that in a moment. 635 00:35:38,140 --> 00:35:41,390 Before we go to that, let's see the elasticity with 636 00:35:41,390 --> 00:35:45,170 respect to negative price, which are small incentives. 637 00:35:45,170 --> 00:35:50,250 So one thing that you already noticed is that the rate of 638 00:35:50,250 --> 00:35:53,230 immunization is very, very low in some places. 639 00:35:53,230 --> 00:35:54,870 It's higher in some others. 640 00:35:54,870 --> 00:35:56,510 This is [INAUDIBLE], the places 641 00:35:56,510 --> 00:35:58,630 where you saw the movie. 642 00:35:58,630 --> 00:36:01,900 After the movie was finished, one thing we noticed is that a 643 00:36:01,900 --> 00:36:05,170 big problem seems to be that kids are not immunized. 644 00:36:05,170 --> 00:36:07,150 The immunization rate was very, very, very 645 00:36:07,150 --> 00:36:09,660 low, less than 5%. 646 00:36:09,660 --> 00:36:12,620 So we decided the try two things. 647 00:36:12,620 --> 00:36:15,920 The first thing was that the NGOs [INAUDIBLE] would work 648 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:20,470 with the government to do a monthly camp for immunization. 649 00:36:20,470 --> 00:36:23,080 So every month, they would take the vaccines from the 650 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,370 government, go to the village, and immunize whoever wanted to 651 00:36:26,370 --> 00:36:28,200 come to be immunized. 652 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:33,200 And on top of this, [INAUDIBLE] 653 00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:36,120 also instituted a small incentive to get immunized, so 654 00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:39,190 that's a kilo of lentil. 655 00:36:39,190 --> 00:36:42,180 Lentil is a [INAUDIBLE]. 656 00:36:42,180 --> 00:36:47,280 It's something people eat as a source of protein, and a kilo 657 00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,960 of lentil is about half the minimum wage. 658 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:55,350 So this is a small, small gift to go with it. 659 00:36:55,350 --> 00:36:57,280 It's not like a large inducement that if it's 660 00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:58,730 something you don't want to do it would 661 00:36:58,730 --> 00:37:00,570 convince you to do it. 662 00:37:00,570 --> 00:37:03,220 And these were the results. 663 00:37:03,220 --> 00:37:05,470 There was also a set of control villages that I'm not 664 00:37:05,470 --> 00:37:06,190 showing to you. 665 00:37:06,190 --> 00:37:08,560 I'm just showing to you the effect of the incentive. 666 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:17,790 So comparing the camp without incentive to 667 00:37:17,790 --> 00:37:20,350 the camp with incentive. 668 00:37:20,350 --> 00:37:24,710 Intervention B are the villages where the lentils 669 00:37:24,710 --> 00:37:28,310 were put in place, and you can see that pretty much everyone 670 00:37:28,310 --> 00:37:30,170 gets the first shot. 671 00:37:30,170 --> 00:37:32,310 That's BCG. 672 00:37:32,310 --> 00:37:35,930 And the second shot is also pretty similar. 673 00:37:35,930 --> 00:37:38,720 From the third, we start seeing a difference, and from 674 00:37:38,720 --> 00:37:41,370 the fourth, an even bigger difference, and from the 675 00:37:41,370 --> 00:37:44,010 fifth, the biggest difference. 676 00:37:44,010 --> 00:37:49,810 The biggest difference is between the more immunization 677 00:37:49,810 --> 00:37:53,500 you need to get, the more the small incentive matter. 678 00:37:53,500 --> 00:37:55,580 So it seems that people are not adverse to getting 679 00:37:55,580 --> 00:37:58,320 immunized, but they sort of lose interest or something 680 00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,740 such that the more you get into trying to get them to 681 00:38:01,740 --> 00:38:07,350 complete the course, the more the incentive is needed. 682 00:38:07,350 --> 00:38:09,710 And this is a reasonably large effect. 683 00:38:09,710 --> 00:38:13,380 Overall if you look at the effect on immunization, about 684 00:38:13,380 --> 00:38:19,320 12% of kids who are in one intervention received all the 685 00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:25,400 immunization they should get, so 18% versus 38% if they get 686 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:26,650 the incentive. 687 00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:35,490 We have three things that we need to try and square. 688 00:38:35,490 --> 00:38:39,530 One is the benefits are very high, two is the demand is 689 00:38:39,530 --> 00:38:43,900 very low, And three is the price elasticity is very high, 690 00:38:43,900 --> 00:38:47,300 both from the positive side and the negative side. 691 00:38:47,300 --> 00:38:49,360 And the question is, how do we put all of 692 00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:51,540 these elements together? 693 00:38:51,540 --> 00:38:54,770 And the reason it is surprising is that suppose we 694 00:38:54,770 --> 00:38:58,950 take as given that the benefits are indeed very high. 695 00:38:58,950 --> 00:39:05,000 In that case, if people knew it, if people don't do 696 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,740 something, it must mean that they think that the cost is 697 00:39:07,740 --> 00:39:09,520 also very high. 698 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:11,550 Why would they think the cost is very high? 699 00:39:11,550 --> 00:39:13,380 Maybe they think it's not culturally appropriate. 700 00:39:13,380 --> 00:39:17,830 Maybe they hate to get their kids immunized. 701 00:39:17,830 --> 00:39:20,550 Maybe sleeping under the bad nets is extremely unpleasant, 702 00:39:20,550 --> 00:39:23,340 or maybe they need the money so much. 703 00:39:23,340 --> 00:39:27,040 So if people are very sensitive to the benefits, are 704 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,650 very aware of the benefits, the only reason why they 705 00:39:29,650 --> 00:39:32,730 wouldn't do it is because they think the costs are huge. 706 00:39:32,730 --> 00:39:37,280 For example, another fact that we see both in rich and poor 707 00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:43,040 countries, people are not very likely to get a test for HIV 708 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:46,380 even and maybe particularly if they have put themselves at 709 00:39:46,380 --> 00:39:47,960 risk of HIV. 710 00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,380 And one of the reasons that people say is that people 711 00:39:50,380 --> 00:39:53,550 realize that it would be good to know your status, but they 712 00:39:53,550 --> 00:39:55,320 are worried. 713 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,940 There is a fear of what will you do if you find out that 714 00:39:57,940 --> 00:39:58,790 you're positive. 715 00:39:58,790 --> 00:40:03,520 Or there is also the social factor of people knowing that 716 00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:08,600 if you go to get tested, it means you've done something 717 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,660 not right, otherwise why would you have HIV if you are only 718 00:40:11,660 --> 00:40:14,890 faithful to your husband who is faithful to you? 719 00:40:14,890 --> 00:40:18,010 So this is an example where the benefits are high and 720 00:40:18,010 --> 00:40:21,150 maybe the costs are also high. 721 00:40:21,150 --> 00:40:23,960 But what is surprising is that if people don't do these 722 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:27,560 things because the costs are high, then I should not able 723 00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,780 to bribe them to do these things with a small incentive 724 00:40:30,780 --> 00:40:33,040 like the kilo of lentil. 725 00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:36,020 If people know the benefits of immunization but don't do it 726 00:40:36,020 --> 00:40:38,270 because they think that the evil eye is going to be on the 727 00:40:38,270 --> 00:40:41,780 kid, then a kilo of lentils shouldn't convince them that, 728 00:40:41,780 --> 00:40:43,845 no, the evil eye is going to be good after all. 729 00:40:43,845 --> 00:40:47,020 It's something that just doesn't square together. 730 00:40:47,020 --> 00:40:50,780 Or if people were so much aware of the benefit, they 731 00:40:50,780 --> 00:40:54,030 shouldn't take a bed net when it's free but refuse to spend 732 00:40:54,030 --> 00:40:55,920 a few cents for it. 733 00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:00,740 So we can't have these three things be true at the same 734 00:41:00,740 --> 00:41:05,210 time, that people realize that the benefits are very high, 735 00:41:05,210 --> 00:41:06,850 the demand is very low, and the price 736 00:41:06,850 --> 00:41:09,030 elasticity is very high. 737 00:41:09,030 --> 00:41:12,940 So it has to be that the benefits viewed from the 738 00:41:12,940 --> 00:41:16,130 people is actually not as high as we think they are. 739 00:41:16,130 --> 00:41:20,240 And there could be three reasons for that. 740 00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:22,975 One is that maybe people don't care about their health or 741 00:41:22,975 --> 00:41:26,025 don't care about the health of their children, and that we 742 00:41:26,025 --> 00:41:29,460 already sort of ruled out because we've seen in the 743 00:41:29,460 --> 00:41:31,690 movie that people are extremely concerned about 744 00:41:31,690 --> 00:41:32,240 their health. 745 00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:34,460 They spend a lot of money on it. 746 00:41:34,460 --> 00:41:37,640 For example, they spend 7% of their 747 00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:38,950 monthly budget on health. 748 00:41:38,950 --> 00:41:42,050 That's a lot, and that is something that we've seen in 749 00:41:42,050 --> 00:41:43,510 the first lecture. 750 00:41:43,510 --> 00:41:49,570 People do spend up to 5% to 7% of their budget on health, the 751 00:41:49,570 --> 00:41:52,480 very poor, except in countries like Mexico where there's a 752 00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:54,440 good public health system. 753 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,650 So it is not that people don't care about health. 754 00:41:57,650 --> 00:42:00,470 We have seen the example of measles. 755 00:42:00,470 --> 00:42:02,950 They don't vaccinate their kids against measles, but if 756 00:42:02,950 --> 00:42:05,100 the kids do get measles, they spend a lot of money on the 757 00:42:05,100 --> 00:42:07,530 hospital and on treatment. 758 00:42:07,530 --> 00:42:10,440 So that's not because they don't care about health. 759 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:15,690 Also when you ask them about what stresses them out, they 760 00:42:15,690 --> 00:42:18,530 tend to say that health is the one thing that stresses them 761 00:42:18,530 --> 00:42:19,640 out the most. 762 00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,770 What makes them worried, tense and anxious in the last month 763 00:42:22,770 --> 00:42:26,040 is their health, or the health of their kids, or the health 764 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:27,010 of their relatives. 765 00:42:27,010 --> 00:42:29,390 So people do care about their health, and they spend money, 766 00:42:29,390 --> 00:42:32,010 but they don't spend it on curative care. 767 00:42:32,010 --> 00:42:34,560 They do spend it on directive care, not preventive. 768 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:37,180 And they not only spend it on curative care, but 769 00:42:37,180 --> 00:42:38,200 on pretty bad ones. 770 00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:39,960 We've seen these shots and [INAUDIBLE] 771 00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:41,880 and stuff like that. 772 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:43,680 So we can remove this. 773 00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:46,650 So now why do people don't use preventive care? 774 00:42:46,650 --> 00:42:48,670 It's not because they don't care about health, but it's 775 00:42:48,670 --> 00:42:51,900 because there's something about preventive care, that 776 00:42:51,900 --> 00:42:56,100 either they don't really believe that it works or 777 00:42:56,100 --> 00:42:58,480 there's something else, that the perception of the benefits 778 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:00,422 from today is relatively low. 779 00:43:03,220 --> 00:43:04,880 Are government to blame for that? 780 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,680 Another possible interpretation is that people 781 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,790 are not getting those services because they are 782 00:43:11,790 --> 00:43:12,920 not generally available. 783 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,410 People don't even know that they exist. 784 00:43:16,410 --> 00:43:21,160 And we've seen in the movie that to a certain extent, we 785 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,950 have reasons to blame the governments. 786 00:43:24,950 --> 00:43:28,160 Nurses are often absent, not only in India, but everywhere. 787 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:31,450 There was a World Bank survey conducted in several 788 00:43:31,450 --> 00:43:34,520 countries, going to the little hospitals where the nurses 789 00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:37,880 are, found 35% of them absent. 790 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:40,620 And even when they're there, they don't really spend a lot 791 00:43:40,620 --> 00:43:43,370 of time on people, they don't treat them very well. 792 00:43:43,370 --> 00:43:50,340 There is this interesting 3-3-3 rule that Jishnu Das and 793 00:43:50,340 --> 00:43:52,990 Jeff Hammer found in India. 794 00:43:52,990 --> 00:43:57,000 That's three minutes, three questions, three drugs. 795 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,780 That's what you get when you go to see a doctor in a public 796 00:44:00,780 --> 00:44:02,370 health facility. 797 00:44:02,370 --> 00:44:03,830 They interviewed three minutes. 798 00:44:03,830 --> 00:44:05,380 They ask three questions. 799 00:44:05,380 --> 00:44:06,726 They usually don't touch you. 800 00:44:06,726 --> 00:44:09,540 They ask you what do you have? 801 00:44:09,540 --> 00:44:11,210 And then they give you three medicines 802 00:44:11,210 --> 00:44:12,840 that you go away with. 803 00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,740 So that's not excellent care. 804 00:44:15,740 --> 00:44:21,950 And the government doctors usually know more than the 805 00:44:21,950 --> 00:44:24,475 private doctors who are not really qualified. 806 00:44:24,475 --> 00:44:26,160 They're all much more qualified. 807 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:31,040 If you ask them to rank vignettes, so you show them a 808 00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:36,110 scenario of a child comes to the clinic with diarrhea, and 809 00:44:36,110 --> 00:44:40,780 you ask the right question to evaluate what is this kid 810 00:44:40,780 --> 00:44:44,440 suffering from, what should I do, the public doctors do much 811 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,970 better than the private doctors on those tests. 812 00:44:47,970 --> 00:44:50,360 For example, when a pregnant woman arrives with 813 00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:52,700 preeclampsia, which is a potentially fatal condition 814 00:44:52,700 --> 00:44:56,890 that happens during pregnancy, they are much more likely to 815 00:44:56,890 --> 00:44:59,335 diagnose at its start and to say that the right course of 816 00:44:59,335 --> 00:45:00,960 action is to send them to hospital. 817 00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:03,710 So in principle, they know more, the public doctors, but 818 00:45:03,710 --> 00:45:06,300 in practice, they do much less. 819 00:45:06,300 --> 00:45:08,210 So even though they know what they are supposed to do, when 820 00:45:08,210 --> 00:45:11,460 you actually look at what they do by putting someone to 821 00:45:11,460 --> 00:45:14,400 observe their behavior, you realize that they don't really 822 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:18,990 use their knowledge. 823 00:45:18,990 --> 00:45:20,990 So that's a part of the problem. 824 00:45:20,990 --> 00:45:23,210 The nurses are not here, they are desultory, they don't 825 00:45:23,210 --> 00:45:26,050 really care, but it's not the entire problem. 826 00:45:26,050 --> 00:45:31,010 Because if you go back to the immunization experiment that I 827 00:45:31,010 --> 00:45:34,520 just showed you where the first treatment was to have 828 00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:37,050 perfect immunization camps-- 829 00:45:37,050 --> 00:45:40,510 every month, in your own village, with a paraworker 830 00:45:40,510 --> 00:45:43,570 that used to go to people and try to remind them that the 831 00:45:43,570 --> 00:45:48,240 camp is coming, and you should bring your kids, and the 832 00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:55,850 nurses who were vaccinating the kids were good, caring, et 833 00:45:55,850 --> 00:45:56,600 cetera people-- 834 00:45:56,600 --> 00:46:01,430 even when you do all that, only 18% of people or 12% of 835 00:46:01,430 --> 00:46:03,540 people got immunized. 836 00:46:03,540 --> 00:46:04,890 I think that's actually 18. 837 00:46:04,890 --> 00:46:06,500 It's 6 plus 12. 838 00:46:06,500 --> 00:46:10,140 18% of people got immunized. 839 00:46:10,140 --> 00:46:13,550 So the bad services by the government doctor is not the 840 00:46:13,550 --> 00:46:15,590 only thing that there is to blame, because even when you 841 00:46:15,590 --> 00:46:18,940 provide good services, you still don't get 842 00:46:18,940 --> 00:46:21,480 a lot of them in. 843 00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:22,980 So supply is not the only reason. 844 00:46:22,980 --> 00:46:27,380 Governments are not only to blame. 845 00:46:27,380 --> 00:46:29,410 What are we left with? 846 00:46:29,410 --> 00:46:31,960 People don't demand preventive care not because they don't 847 00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:34,460 care about health. 848 00:46:34,460 --> 00:46:37,380 Not because it's just not available, because they don't 849 00:46:37,380 --> 00:46:40,750 demand it even when it's available. 850 00:46:40,750 --> 00:46:44,540 So we are left with two possible explanations. 851 00:46:44,540 --> 00:46:49,940 One is that they understand the benefits, but the benefits 852 00:46:49,940 --> 00:46:52,880 are far away in the future, and they discount those 853 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:55,810 benefits that are far away in the future a lot. 854 00:46:55,810 --> 00:46:59,870 And the second is that they don't know the effectiveness 855 00:46:59,870 --> 00:47:03,730 of preventive care just because it's very difficult to 856 00:47:03,730 --> 00:47:05,705 understand what works, and why it works, and 857 00:47:05,705 --> 00:47:07,222 why it doesn't work. 858 00:47:07,222 --> 00:47:10,010 AUDIENCE: So in India we saw that part of the reason is 859 00:47:10,010 --> 00:47:13,530 also because they believed in religious cures more. 860 00:47:13,530 --> 00:47:15,855 Is that true in other countries in the developing 861 00:47:15,855 --> 00:47:16,602 world as well? 862 00:47:16,602 --> 00:47:18,096 Is that predominantly [INAUDIBLE]? 863 00:47:18,096 --> 00:47:20,110 PROFESSOR: No, I think it's true in general that people 864 00:47:20,110 --> 00:47:22,140 construct all sorts of interesting beliefs. 865 00:47:22,140 --> 00:47:25,580 What is important is that you have those beliefs. 866 00:47:25,580 --> 00:47:27,760 On the other hand, if I give you a kilo of lentils, those 867 00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,640 beliefs are not strong enough for you not to sell them for a 868 00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:32,680 kilo of lentils. 869 00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,700 So I think what is really important is that it's not 870 00:47:35,700 --> 00:47:39,035 that people think that immunization is something bad, 871 00:47:39,035 --> 00:47:41,610 because otherwise it would be very hard to convince them 872 00:47:41,610 --> 00:47:43,000 with small things. 873 00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:46,600 It has to be that they just don't think much about it one 874 00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,720 way or the other. 875 00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:53,496 AUDIENCE: I was wondering is there an example of a 876 00:47:53,496 --> 00:47:55,725 [INAUDIBLE] 877 00:47:55,725 --> 00:47:58,870 if people are embarrassed [INAUDIBLE] 878 00:47:58,870 --> 00:48:01,750 assume something that they [INAUDIBLE] 879 00:48:05,110 --> 00:48:06,070 PROFESSOR: Yes. 880 00:48:06,070 --> 00:48:08,090 That is a very interesting question. 881 00:48:08,090 --> 00:48:16,910 For example, you could say if you have a cultural reason not 882 00:48:16,910 --> 00:48:19,690 to do something, if you have this social reason that you 883 00:48:19,690 --> 00:48:22,740 are embarrassed, if I give you a small incentive, you can 884 00:48:22,740 --> 00:48:25,390 just say, oh, I've gone for this small incentive. 885 00:48:25,390 --> 00:48:27,620 And in fact, there was a very interesting study that was 886 00:48:27,620 --> 00:48:30,280 done which was trying to shed some light on 887 00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:32,090 exactly this issue. 888 00:48:32,090 --> 00:48:36,520 It's a study where as part of a survey, everyone got tested 889 00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,500 for HIV, everyone who agreed. 890 00:48:39,500 --> 00:48:41,710 But you didn't need to get your results. 891 00:48:41,710 --> 00:48:44,730 If you wanted your result, you had to go pick them up three 892 00:48:44,730 --> 00:48:48,880 weeks later at camp. 893 00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:54,600 And so, at the end, people [INAUDIBLE] a bottle cap where 894 00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:59,610 they got a reward for picking up their tests. 895 00:48:59,610 --> 00:49:03,060 It could go from zero to something like $1 in small 896 00:49:03,060 --> 00:49:04,330 increments. 897 00:49:04,330 --> 00:49:07,680 And in addition, the researcher also randomized 898 00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:12,230 where they put the tent where you would get your results. 899 00:49:12,230 --> 00:49:14,740 In some cases, it was put right in the middle of the 900 00:49:14,740 --> 00:49:20,610 village, so very convenient, but very visible so everybody 901 00:49:20,610 --> 00:49:22,500 would know that you're going there. 902 00:49:22,500 --> 00:49:25,340 In some places, it was put-- because it was random, so it 903 00:49:25,340 --> 00:49:28,000 was like throwing a dart on the village and saying we are 904 00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:30,970 going to put it there-- it was like in the middle of a field. 905 00:49:30,970 --> 00:49:34,510 So a little bit far away, not very convenient, but much more 906 00:49:34,510 --> 00:49:37,870 discrete because no one would see you go there. 907 00:49:37,870 --> 00:49:41,230 And what they found is that, number one, people were 908 00:49:41,230 --> 00:49:46,980 extremely sensitive to the reward, suggesting that it is 909 00:49:46,980 --> 00:49:50,420 not some deep psychological fear that were making them 910 00:49:50,420 --> 00:49:53,770 worried to pick up their test, because whatever this fear was 911 00:49:53,770 --> 00:49:56,310 could be overcome by $0.10. 912 00:49:56,310 --> 00:49:58,750 Now it could still be the social thing. 913 00:49:58,750 --> 00:50:03,280 So here, what do you think they found with the tent? 914 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:06,530 Do you think more people got their result when it was far 915 00:50:06,530 --> 00:50:09,520 away or when it was close by? 916 00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:12,610 First, what would we expect under both, and what would we 917 00:50:12,610 --> 00:50:16,722 expect under the social stigma story? 918 00:50:16,722 --> 00:50:19,082 AUDIENCE: The far away tent-- 919 00:50:19,082 --> 00:50:20,380 PROFESSOR: That the far away tent would 920 00:50:20,380 --> 00:50:21,442 have been more popular. 921 00:50:21,442 --> 00:50:24,350 But in fact what they found is the exact opposite, that the 922 00:50:24,350 --> 00:50:25,990 far away tent was not popular at all. 923 00:50:25,990 --> 00:50:28,270 Nobody wanted to walk more than a kilometer 924 00:50:28,270 --> 00:50:29,390 to get their test. 925 00:50:29,390 --> 00:50:33,080 And the close by tent was very popular. 926 00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:43,050 And furthermore, they also found that the elasticity with 927 00:50:43,050 --> 00:50:47,200 respect to this tent was much smaller when there was a gift. 928 00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:49,550 So when there was a gift, people did walk a kilometer to 929 00:50:49,550 --> 00:50:56,260 get their results, but when there was no gift, people were 930 00:50:56,260 --> 00:50:58,550 very sensitive to the distance. 931 00:50:58,550 --> 00:51:05,260 So those suggest that in this case, in Malawi, [INAUDIBLE], 932 00:51:05,260 --> 00:51:09,130 neither the social background, not the psychological barrier, 933 00:51:09,130 --> 00:51:13,050 were so big, and that if people didn't get their HIV 934 00:51:13,050 --> 00:51:17,000 result, it was more due to some form of procrastination 935 00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:19,490 or inertia or something like that. 936 00:51:19,490 --> 00:51:23,420 And that is something a little bit surprising because 937 00:51:23,420 --> 00:51:26,610 anti-retrovirals are available in Malawi, so in principal if 938 00:51:26,610 --> 00:51:29,440 you find that you're positive, you can do something. 939 00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:34,600 And if you find out that you're negative, then you can 940 00:51:34,600 --> 00:51:38,542 try and take some steps to remain that way. 941 00:51:38,542 --> 00:51:43,100 AUDIENCE: Is it possible they just value [INAUDIBLE] 942 00:51:43,100 --> 00:51:45,980 PROFESSOR: So in this case, it shows that-- so in the case of 943 00:51:45,980 --> 00:51:48,380 the HIV, [INAUDIBLE] all this money. 944 00:51:48,380 --> 00:51:51,280 Exactly what this means is that it has to be that they 945 00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:56,100 value the small gains more than the results of the exam. 946 00:51:56,100 --> 00:51:58,120 And this is what is surprising, which is you have 947 00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:00,780 to say why is that the case when it is something that it 948 00:52:00,780 --> 00:52:03,230 should be so helpful to you to know whether 949 00:52:03,230 --> 00:52:04,620 or not you're positive? 950 00:52:04,620 --> 00:52:07,650 Or with the lentils, it should be so helpful to you that your 951 00:52:07,650 --> 00:52:08,782 kid is immunized. 952 00:52:08,782 --> 00:52:11,334 AUDIENCE: Can I ask a followup question? 953 00:52:11,334 --> 00:52:17,298 Does that mean that we should reevaluate how we [INAUDIBLE] 954 00:52:17,298 --> 00:52:23,759 so you're saying HIV tests could potentially be more 955 00:52:23,759 --> 00:52:25,747 helpful because they could be cured [INAUDIBLE]. 956 00:52:29,226 --> 00:52:32,208 Shouldn't we be assigning more weight to [INAUDIBLE] 957 00:52:36,220 --> 00:52:40,190 PROFESSOR: What we have seen is it doesn't mean that we 958 00:52:40,190 --> 00:52:43,790 should put more weight on instant gratification things 959 00:52:43,790 --> 00:52:45,050 than we do. 960 00:52:45,050 --> 00:52:47,630 What this means, in my view, is that we should understand 961 00:52:47,630 --> 00:52:51,630 why there is this disconnect between what doctors know, for 962 00:52:51,630 --> 00:52:54,110 example, and what people feel. 963 00:52:54,110 --> 00:52:55,930 Because that's kind of the source of the mystery, that 964 00:52:55,930 --> 00:52:58,950 there is this big tension, and it has to be about the 965 00:52:58,950 --> 00:53:00,990 perception of the benefits. 966 00:53:00,990 --> 00:53:05,340 And one aspect of this is this future versus present, and one 967 00:53:05,340 --> 00:53:07,300 aspect of this is whether you understand what 968 00:53:07,300 --> 00:53:10,295 the benefits are. 969 00:53:10,295 --> 00:53:12,259 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 970 00:53:12,259 --> 00:53:15,205 HIV testing, I think the results make sense just 971 00:53:15,205 --> 00:53:17,169 because if your test comes out HIV 972 00:53:17,169 --> 00:53:18,642 negative, well then, great. 973 00:53:18,642 --> 00:53:20,115 You're just going to go on with your life. 974 00:53:20,115 --> 00:53:22,733 And if it comes out positive, is there really that much you 975 00:53:22,733 --> 00:53:25,025 can do about it if you're [INAUDIBLE]-- 976 00:53:25,025 --> 00:53:26,365 I thought those [INAUDIBLE] were very expensive. 977 00:53:26,365 --> 00:53:31,050 PROFESSOR: So, in Malawi and in several other African 978 00:53:31,050 --> 00:53:35,510 countries, it's actually available for free. 979 00:53:35,510 --> 00:53:37,050 So you can do something. 980 00:53:40,110 --> 00:53:43,340 It's not going to cure you, but it's going to greatly 981 00:53:43,340 --> 00:53:45,500 improve your life for the time to come. 982 00:53:45,500 --> 00:53:47,040 People might not fully realize that. 983 00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:49,491 AUDIENCE: I have two questions. 984 00:53:49,491 --> 00:53:51,946 [INAUDIBLE] certainty of [INAUDIBLE] 985 00:53:51,946 --> 00:53:54,401 if you're getting [INAUDIBLE] 986 00:53:54,401 --> 00:53:57,347 a certain cost [INAUDIBLE] 987 00:53:57,347 --> 00:53:58,329 really uncertain. 988 00:53:58,329 --> 00:54:02,257 And the second question was about with the lentil 989 00:54:02,257 --> 00:54:05,694 distribution, can you play with short term kind of 990 00:54:05,694 --> 00:54:06,676 [INAUDIBLE] cost? 991 00:54:06,676 --> 00:54:10,113 So people can procrastinate indefinitely to always get a 992 00:54:10,113 --> 00:54:13,385 pack of lentils when you get a vaccine, but if you only get 993 00:54:13,385 --> 00:54:17,195 lentils on the first day of the month, then wouldn't that 994 00:54:17,195 --> 00:54:20,202 really lower the cost today relative to tomorrow? 995 00:54:20,202 --> 00:54:22,330 PROFESSOR: That's a very good point. 996 00:54:22,330 --> 00:54:26,750 Why don't I table the questions until we give a bit 997 00:54:26,750 --> 00:54:28,000 more context, and we'll go back to 998 00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:29,250 exactly these questions. 999 00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:33,360 They really have two problems. 1000 00:54:33,360 --> 00:54:38,470 One is that you might not know that it's worthwhile getting 1001 00:54:38,470 --> 00:54:41,730 your HIV test because you might not know that you are 1002 00:54:41,730 --> 00:54:43,800 entitled to the drugs or that the drugs will really help 1003 00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:48,720 you, or you might not know that getting immunized is so 1004 00:54:48,720 --> 00:54:50,310 beneficial. 1005 00:54:50,310 --> 00:54:54,930 And the other is the benefits are in the future, the cost is 1006 00:54:54,930 --> 00:54:56,480 now, and that leads people to procrastinate. 1007 00:54:58,980 --> 00:55:02,010 Let's go over both things. 1008 00:55:02,010 --> 00:55:05,010 The first thing is learning about health care, and we had 1009 00:55:05,010 --> 00:55:08,080 a little bit of that discussion already last time. 1010 00:55:08,080 --> 00:55:13,540 But most diseases are self-limiting, that is, they 1011 00:55:13,540 --> 00:55:15,395 just go away by themselves. 1012 00:55:20,790 --> 00:55:24,340 You don't know that because how would you know? 1013 00:55:24,340 --> 00:55:27,850 You start with a theory that someone has told you that as 1014 00:55:27,850 --> 00:55:30,590 soon as you're sick, you should get a shot to put the 1015 00:55:30,590 --> 00:55:32,180 medicine right into your blood. 1016 00:55:32,180 --> 00:55:35,440 And if you don't do that, you won't get better. 1017 00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:40,000 And then if the market is unregulated, like it is in a 1018 00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,160 lot of developing countries where anybody can establish 1019 00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:43,590 themself as a doctor-- for example, 1020 00:55:43,590 --> 00:55:45,130 we saw that in India-- 1021 00:55:45,130 --> 00:55:49,120 then you have a very strong demand for shots and someone 1022 00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:50,720 who's willing to supply it. 1023 00:55:50,720 --> 00:55:52,150 You're never going to experiment 1024 00:55:52,150 --> 00:55:53,990 away from the shorts. 1025 00:55:53,990 --> 00:55:57,430 So every time you're sick, you're going to get a shot, 1026 00:55:57,430 --> 00:55:59,490 and you're going to get better. 1027 00:55:59,490 --> 00:56:01,900 And so you're going to think that your theory was, once 1028 00:56:01,900 --> 00:56:05,260 again, vindicated because you were sick, you got a shot, now 1029 00:56:05,260 --> 00:56:06,420 you get better. 1030 00:56:06,420 --> 00:56:08,770 That is going to further reinforce your belief that 1031 00:56:08,770 --> 00:56:11,000 this was a good theory and further make you very 1032 00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:14,460 suspicious of not getting a shot. 1033 00:56:14,460 --> 00:56:18,110 Now of course, if you experimented once of not 1034 00:56:18,110 --> 00:56:20,140 getting a shot, you would see, oh, I have 1035 00:56:20,140 --> 00:56:21,520 gotten better as well. 1036 00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:25,190 Progressively, your [INAUDIBLE] would move towards 1037 00:56:25,190 --> 00:56:28,730 something closer to the truth, which is, let's say, 95% of 1038 00:56:28,730 --> 00:56:31,650 the time you get better with a shot, and 90% of the time you 1039 00:56:31,650 --> 00:56:33,910 get better without the shot. 1040 00:56:33,910 --> 00:56:36,760 But if your beliefs were 95% of the time you get better 1041 00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:39,950 with a shot and 10% you get without a shot, then mostly 1042 00:56:39,950 --> 00:56:41,240 you're never going to experiment. 1043 00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:43,470 You're never going to know, and you're continuing with 1044 00:56:43,470 --> 00:56:45,000 this very strong belief. 1045 00:56:47,630 --> 00:56:49,690 So this is for self-limiting diseases. 1046 00:56:49,690 --> 00:56:54,170 And now if you take a disease like diabetes, or chest pains, 1047 00:56:54,170 --> 00:56:57,290 or something like that that doesn't go away with the shot, 1048 00:56:57,290 --> 00:57:00,700 when you go to a doctor and get a shot, it doesn't go, so 1049 00:57:00,700 --> 00:57:02,060 progressively your [INAUDIBLE] 1050 00:57:02,060 --> 00:57:05,930 are going to be that everything is useless, at 1051 00:57:05,930 --> 00:57:07,926 which point you might as well go to [INAUDIBLE]. 1052 00:57:11,770 --> 00:57:16,020 It might be why we see this paradoxical result of people 1053 00:57:16,020 --> 00:57:18,910 spending a lot of money on diseases that would cure 1054 00:57:18,910 --> 00:57:22,770 themselves anyway and not doing really any attempt to 1055 00:57:22,770 --> 00:57:24,880 treat seriously the diseases that they 1056 00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:26,600 should treat seriously. 1057 00:57:26,600 --> 00:57:29,330 Because the disease that they should treat seriously are 1058 00:57:29,330 --> 00:57:32,660 beyond the ability of the Bengali doctor to handle, 1059 00:57:32,660 --> 00:57:35,050 because first order, the Bengali doctor 1060 00:57:35,050 --> 00:57:37,380 can't handle nothing. 1061 00:57:37,380 --> 00:57:39,940 So the Bengali doctor end up spending [INAUDIBLE] 1062 00:57:39,940 --> 00:57:42,960 distributed this antibiotics for diseases that fixes 1063 00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:44,560 themselves anyway. 1064 00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:46,700 People don't get any form of treatment for things that they 1065 00:57:46,700 --> 00:57:48,910 should really try and treat, which would be much more 1066 00:57:48,910 --> 00:57:52,310 complicated to treat, and you get this no learning 1067 00:57:52,310 --> 00:57:56,990 equilibrium that is very difficult to get away from. 1068 00:57:56,990 --> 00:58:00,660 And it will be harder to attribute it to nothing, so 1069 00:58:00,660 --> 00:58:04,380 the tendency to over medicate is a very [INAUDIBLE] 1070 00:58:04,380 --> 00:58:04,950 tendency. 1071 00:58:04,950 --> 00:58:09,350 And in fact, this tendency to over medicate is not something 1072 00:58:09,350 --> 00:58:11,560 that you only have in poor countries. 1073 00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:13,410 In rich countries, when you go to the doctor 1074 00:58:13,410 --> 00:58:14,930 and they tell you-- 1075 00:58:14,930 --> 00:58:17,770 like when I arrived in the US, my first doctor visit was you 1076 00:58:17,770 --> 00:58:20,175 should breathe under the shower, and I was like, what 1077 00:58:20,175 --> 00:58:21,130 are you talking about? 1078 00:58:21,130 --> 00:58:24,010 Like in my country, I would have gotten an antibiotic 1079 00:58:24,010 --> 00:58:26,150 immediately. 1080 00:58:26,150 --> 00:58:29,640 So our own tendency is always you must do something about 1081 00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:32,090 me, like you should be able to do something, 1082 00:58:32,090 --> 00:58:34,150 not just let it go. 1083 00:58:34,150 --> 00:58:36,510 And the only reason why doctors don't do it here is 1084 00:58:36,510 --> 00:58:39,020 because they are under guidelines, and they have 1085 00:58:39,020 --> 00:58:40,830 regulations from their hospital, from their 1086 00:58:40,830 --> 00:58:42,810 association, from what they have learned to 1087 00:58:42,810 --> 00:58:44,770 not do these things. 1088 00:58:44,770 --> 00:58:49,603 Now preventive care is even worse because with preventive 1089 00:58:49,603 --> 00:58:53,780 care you are taking an action today to prevent something to 1090 00:58:53,780 --> 00:58:56,725 happen in the future, but far away in the future. 1091 00:58:59,450 --> 00:59:05,500 For example, you breast feed your child so that the child 1092 00:59:05,500 --> 00:59:07,580 gets stronger in the future and doesn't get sick in the 1093 00:59:07,580 --> 00:59:11,280 future, or I guess with breastfeeding it's also avoid 1094 00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:13,650 diarrhea in the meantime. 1095 00:59:13,650 --> 00:59:17,680 But for immunization, you get immunized, and then you don't 1096 00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:19,540 get measles at some point. 1097 00:59:19,540 --> 00:59:22,630 So linking the two is very difficult. 1098 00:59:22,630 --> 00:59:26,970 And I think Noah had made this point with respect to 1099 00:59:26,970 --> 00:59:31,390 deworming, it's even harder when you're immunized against 1100 00:59:31,390 --> 00:59:38,310 communicable diseases, because even if you do get immunized 1101 00:59:38,310 --> 00:59:40,770 and people around you don't get immunized, if there are 1102 00:59:40,770 --> 00:59:42,270 enough people who get immunized, 1103 00:59:42,270 --> 00:59:44,920 then no one gets measles. 1104 00:59:44,920 --> 00:59:47,650 So the fact that you got immunized protects other 1105 00:59:47,650 --> 00:59:50,600 people around you as well, so what you're seeing is that, 1106 00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:55,880 oh, this whole immunization thing, now I got it, and now, 1107 00:59:55,880 --> 00:59:58,420 yes, it's true my kid doesn't have measles, but no one has 1108 00:59:58,420 --> 01:00:02,910 measles, so clearly it is not because I got immunized that I 1109 01:00:02,910 --> 01:00:03,900 didn't get it. 1110 01:00:03,900 --> 01:00:06,400 Now of course, it is because collectively there was 1111 01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:11,190 immunization around, but it's very difficult to infer. 1112 01:00:11,190 --> 01:00:15,820 If you remember the results of the deworming study, when 1113 01:00:15,820 --> 01:00:18,950 people had more friends around them who got the deworming, 1114 01:00:18,950 --> 01:00:21,500 they were actually less likely to get dewormed. 1115 01:00:21,500 --> 01:00:25,700 And one possible explanation is that initially they were 1116 01:00:25,700 --> 01:00:28,740 convinced by the people that deworming would make their 1117 01:00:28,740 --> 01:00:30,780 kids less sick, but then they saw all of these kids around 1118 01:00:30,780 --> 01:00:35,137 them who don't get dewormed and don't get sick either, and 1119 01:00:35,137 --> 01:00:36,230 so they're saying what is the point? 1120 01:00:36,230 --> 01:00:37,480 I don't need to do it. 1121 01:00:40,690 --> 01:00:43,130 So this is basically not something that 1122 01:00:43,130 --> 01:00:46,780 we can learn ourselves. 1123 01:00:46,780 --> 01:00:51,740 In a lot of our own lives, for example if you try to go 1124 01:00:51,740 --> 01:00:57,240 afield, and you do something, like, for example, plant in 1125 01:00:57,240 --> 01:01:00,740 rows instead of scatter plant, you see immediately that your 1126 01:01:00,740 --> 01:01:03,000 plant is doing better. 1127 01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:05,950 So you can progressively experiment with better 1128 01:01:05,950 --> 01:01:09,630 techniques, and you will get better at it. 1129 01:01:09,630 --> 01:01:13,835 So in most of our lives, we experiment things, and we kind 1130 01:01:13,835 --> 01:01:16,180 of see the results, or at least we have a sense of what 1131 01:01:16,180 --> 01:01:19,850 the results are, and we can adjust our behavior. 1132 01:01:19,850 --> 01:01:22,950 With health, our own experience, or own 1133 01:01:22,950 --> 01:01:26,320 observations, is very misleading most of the time. 1134 01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:29,160 We think we can infer from our actions something that we 1135 01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:30,730 cannot really infer. 1136 01:01:30,730 --> 01:01:33,170 It's not because of the medicine that we got better. 1137 01:01:33,170 --> 01:01:38,410 We think we can infer from not seeing a result from 1138 01:01:38,410 --> 01:01:41,430 immunization that immunization was not working, et cetera. 1139 01:01:41,430 --> 01:01:44,060 So it is just not possible to learn, because the object is 1140 01:01:44,060 --> 01:01:45,810 too complicated. 1141 01:01:45,810 --> 01:01:47,840 So how do we learn about health? 1142 01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:49,280 The answer is we don't. 1143 01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:52,240 Well, you guys might because you've first taken biology, so 1144 01:01:52,240 --> 01:01:54,460 you have some sense of it. 1145 01:01:54,460 --> 01:01:59,670 But most of us just don't have anything to do, no real 1146 01:01:59,670 --> 01:02:05,190 understanding of why medicines are working unless we have red 1147 01:02:05,190 --> 01:02:06,640 stuff on the side. 1148 01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:08,730 But still, when our doctor says you don't need an 1149 01:02:08,730 --> 01:02:10,970 antibiotic to cure that, we trust them. 1150 01:02:10,970 --> 01:02:13,180 We trust them because they have spent a lot of money and 1151 01:02:13,180 --> 01:02:16,850 a lot of time getting a health care education, and we believe 1152 01:02:16,850 --> 01:02:19,090 that there is something into it. 1153 01:02:19,090 --> 01:02:21,730 And that trust, same thing with immunization. 1154 01:02:21,730 --> 01:02:25,620 We get immunized because we are told to get immunized and 1155 01:02:25,620 --> 01:02:27,140 not because we understand how it works. 1156 01:02:27,140 --> 01:02:28,030 Not at all. 1157 01:02:28,030 --> 01:02:31,390 So it's got nothing to do with our education or our superior 1158 01:02:31,390 --> 01:02:32,590 intelligence. 1159 01:02:32,590 --> 01:02:36,410 And in face, this trust is quite fragile. 1160 01:02:36,410 --> 01:02:41,560 You see it eroding reasonably easily when something happens. 1161 01:02:41,560 --> 01:02:49,520 so for example, there has been a few well-publicized articles 1162 01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:54,530 linking the measles vaccine, which is MMR-- 1163 01:02:54,530 --> 01:02:57,610 Measles something Rubella, MMR vaccine-- 1164 01:02:57,610 --> 01:02:58,830 and autism. 1165 01:02:58,830 --> 01:03:04,620 There's been some court cases, et cetera, which have been 1166 01:03:04,620 --> 01:03:11,070 actually the people who were suing against the vaccine have 1167 01:03:11,070 --> 01:03:11,740 generally lost. 1168 01:03:11,740 --> 01:03:15,270 But despite the fact, there is pretty much ingrained 1169 01:03:15,270 --> 01:03:18,500 somewhere in the collective mentality the idea that, in 1170 01:03:18,500 --> 01:03:21,830 fact, MMR vaccines might cause autism. 1171 01:03:21,830 --> 01:03:25,900 And as result, there is kind of an epidemic of 1172 01:03:25,900 --> 01:03:31,130 non-vaccination for measles which has led in some places 1173 01:03:31,130 --> 01:03:34,780 to measles outbreaks that you didn't used to have before. 1174 01:03:34,780 --> 01:03:38,050 So these things are actually reasonably fragile. 1175 01:03:38,050 --> 01:03:40,200 If you're interested in that, there is a book by a New 1176 01:03:40,200 --> 01:03:43,830 Yorker journalist called Michael Specter called 1177 01:03:43,830 --> 01:03:47,780 Denialism which has a very interesting chapter on this 1178 01:03:47,780 --> 01:03:49,930 vaccination in the US. 1179 01:03:49,930 --> 01:03:55,130 And this vaccination in the US story reminded me of polio 1180 01:03:55,130 --> 01:03:56,460 vaccine in India. 1181 01:03:56,460 --> 01:03:58,920 Polio vaccine is one thing that for some reason the 1182 01:03:58,920 --> 01:04:01,000 government of India has decided that they are going to 1183 01:04:01,000 --> 01:04:05,400 really do, so most kids do get the polio vaccine. 1184 01:04:05,400 --> 01:04:09,730 But there are pockets where it's not being done, and they 1185 01:04:09,730 --> 01:04:13,960 tend to be mostly in villages which are refusing the polio 1186 01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:18,610 drugs, and the reason is that they say it's an attempt to 1187 01:04:18,610 --> 01:04:20,300 sterilize us. 1188 01:04:20,300 --> 01:04:23,480 And why would they have this idea that might sound a little 1189 01:04:23,480 --> 01:04:25,750 bit bizarre? 1190 01:04:25,750 --> 01:04:30,130 It is linked to the fact that long time ago, during the 1191 01:04:30,130 --> 01:04:33,390 emergency period which is a when Indira Ghandi suspended 1192 01:04:33,390 --> 01:04:37,770 the civil liberty, there was a big drive to encourage 1193 01:04:37,770 --> 01:04:41,370 sterilization of people who had at least two children. 1194 01:04:41,370 --> 01:04:45,270 And this big drive took a shape that with sometimes 1195 01:04:45,270 --> 01:04:49,640 quite unacceptable, including rounding up people who had no 1196 01:04:49,640 --> 01:04:52,310 desire being sterilized, including lying to people 1197 01:04:52,310 --> 01:04:55,320 about what was being done to them, et cetera. 1198 01:04:55,320 --> 01:04:58,530 And this has created this huge mistrust, in particular in the 1199 01:04:58,530 --> 01:05:02,960 Muslim population, about what government's trying to do to 1200 01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:06,680 them under the guise of doing something good for them. 1201 01:05:06,680 --> 01:05:10,410 And so there are regions where people will simply not accept 1202 01:05:10,410 --> 01:05:12,500 to be immunized. 1203 01:05:12,500 --> 01:05:13,370 This is an extreme. 1204 01:05:13,370 --> 01:05:15,760 Those are two extreme cases where people have a strong 1205 01:05:15,760 --> 01:05:16,900 belief against. 1206 01:05:16,900 --> 01:05:20,110 If you do that here in this region, giving people lentils 1207 01:05:20,110 --> 01:05:21,480 to immunize them will not work. 1208 01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:23,930 In fact, it might be counterproductive because they 1209 01:05:23,930 --> 01:05:26,790 might think that you're trying to fool them like they did 1210 01:05:26,790 --> 01:05:28,930 with the sterilization already. 1211 01:05:28,930 --> 01:05:32,730 But more generally, the fact that people are generally 1212 01:05:32,730 --> 01:05:36,800 indifferent about preventive care might be related to the 1213 01:05:36,800 --> 01:05:38,470 fact that they don't think there is some grand 1214 01:05:38,470 --> 01:05:39,120 conspiration. 1215 01:05:39,120 --> 01:05:40,960 They just think you're bullshitting them like you 1216 01:05:40,960 --> 01:05:42,210 always are. 1217 01:05:44,610 --> 01:05:46,850 And once this trust is eroded, then it's very 1218 01:05:46,850 --> 01:05:48,100 difficult to go back. 1219 01:05:50,310 --> 01:05:53,820 AUDIENCE: I think in America, don't most people figure out 1220 01:05:53,820 --> 01:05:55,700 all these things about vaccination and 1221 01:05:55,700 --> 01:05:56,925 preventive care work? 1222 01:05:56,925 --> 01:06:01,020 There's a reason because they have a family care doctor who 1223 01:06:01,020 --> 01:06:01,440 tells them? 1224 01:06:01,440 --> 01:06:03,818 There's some figure of authority that you can trust 1225 01:06:03,818 --> 01:06:06,248 that tells them that these things work. 1226 01:06:06,248 --> 01:06:09,650 I'm guessing most Americans don't know how vaccines work. 1227 01:06:09,650 --> 01:06:11,108 PROFESSOR: That's exactly right. 1228 01:06:11,108 --> 01:06:14,510 AUDIENCE: So if you have the same thing in India or in 1229 01:06:14,510 --> 01:06:19,895 Africa, figures of authority that have been mandated by 1230 01:06:19,895 --> 01:06:23,099 some government agency or some school that tells them that 1231 01:06:23,099 --> 01:06:25,811 they know about this stuff, telling them that, wouldn't 1232 01:06:25,811 --> 01:06:27,290 that [INAUDIBLE] 1233 01:06:27,290 --> 01:06:28,769 PROFESSOR: That's exactly right. 1234 01:06:28,769 --> 01:06:31,330 The question is, who is this figure of authority? 1235 01:06:31,330 --> 01:06:37,100 In the US, except for examples like this autism in the US 1236 01:06:37,100 --> 01:06:40,640 where there was some idea of conspiracy theory, where big 1237 01:06:40,640 --> 01:06:43,920 pharma is trying to make our children autistic and things 1238 01:06:43,920 --> 01:06:50,050 like that, except in those cases, we have a 1239 01:06:50,050 --> 01:06:51,490 basic sense of trust. 1240 01:06:51,490 --> 01:06:54,320 That if your doctor tells you to do something, you think 1241 01:06:54,320 --> 01:06:55,600 they must know what it is they're doing. 1242 01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:58,060 You don't understand what is going on, but 1243 01:06:58,060 --> 01:07:00,200 you still trust them. 1244 01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:03,520 But the problem with a place like India, for example, is 1245 01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:08,450 whether this authority figure exists or whether they are 1246 01:07:08,450 --> 01:07:10,310 interested in preventive care. 1247 01:07:10,310 --> 01:07:13,435 So in India, this sterilization campaign that I 1248 01:07:13,435 --> 01:07:18,520 was talking about had very, very long-lasting damage of 1249 01:07:18,520 --> 01:07:22,160 convincing people that the government was quite liable to 1250 01:07:22,160 --> 01:07:25,660 lie to them on any matter involving health. 1251 01:07:25,660 --> 01:07:28,800 So people are quite suspicious, and if enough tell 1252 01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:31,500 them you should get polio drugs, they're thinking he's 1253 01:07:31,500 --> 01:07:33,120 trying to do something else to me. 1254 01:07:33,120 --> 01:07:35,060 She's trying to get me sterilized. 1255 01:07:35,060 --> 01:07:39,480 So once the trust is eroded, someone who is mandated by the 1256 01:07:39,480 --> 01:07:46,350 government is someone who a priori you should not believe, 1257 01:07:46,350 --> 01:07:50,080 so that the government becomes a negative, not a positive. 1258 01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:53,380 AUDIENCE: So [INAUDIBLE] like a Muslim doctor [INAUDIBLE] 1259 01:07:53,380 --> 01:07:57,077 saying [INAUDIBLE] the fact that we've been mandated by 1260 01:07:57,077 --> 01:07:58,705 the government or [INAUDIBLE]. 1261 01:07:58,705 --> 01:07:59,800 PROFESSOR: Exactly. 1262 01:07:59,800 --> 01:08:00,686 [INAUDIBLE] 1263 01:08:00,686 --> 01:08:02,768 so you would need also authority figure once 1264 01:08:02,768 --> 01:08:03,750 you've eroded it. 1265 01:08:03,750 --> 01:08:06,400 And once you've eroded the trust, it takes a lot of time 1266 01:08:06,400 --> 01:08:09,060 to rebuild it again, but you can have 1267 01:08:09,060 --> 01:08:10,090 other authority figures. 1268 01:08:10,090 --> 01:08:14,270 So in Phuket, for example, in the movie, you remember, there 1269 01:08:14,270 --> 01:08:18,760 is a doctor from an NGO who is talking about the Bengali 1270 01:08:18,760 --> 01:08:21,609 doctors sometimes being good, sometimes being bad, and about 1271 01:08:21,609 --> 01:08:23,710 the kids with the long hair. 1272 01:08:23,710 --> 01:08:28,850 So this doctor used to work in a small hospital run by a 1273 01:08:28,850 --> 01:08:33,439 couple doctors. 1274 01:08:33,439 --> 01:08:37,250 In this area, everybody was immunized, everybody was 1275 01:08:37,250 --> 01:08:39,080 always going to them, everybody was getting 1276 01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:42,350 preventive care because that have established that trust. 1277 01:08:42,350 --> 01:08:47,029 But the point of it is how do you establish the trust? 1278 01:08:47,029 --> 01:08:52,960 They were on a very small area, the government has a lot 1279 01:08:52,960 --> 01:08:55,800 of power to reach a lot of people, but once they have 1280 01:08:55,800 --> 01:09:00,750 misused it once, or twice, or three times, the temptation to 1281 01:09:00,750 --> 01:09:03,960 use the trust that you have from the people to get them to 1282 01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:06,590 do things that are not necessarily in their interest 1283 01:09:06,590 --> 01:09:07,939 is very strong. 1284 01:09:07,939 --> 01:09:09,700 And once you have done that, then it's 1285 01:09:09,700 --> 01:09:11,461 difficult to get back. 1286 01:09:11,461 --> 01:09:14,239 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] 1287 01:09:14,239 --> 01:09:18,521 For example, in the movie that we watched, there were a lot 1288 01:09:18,521 --> 01:09:22,473 of people who would choose to go to the [INAUDIBLE] 1289 01:09:22,473 --> 01:09:25,439 instead of going to the actual doctor. 1290 01:09:25,439 --> 01:09:29,420 Is there any initiative where people actually use those 1291 01:09:29,420 --> 01:09:39,842 entities to actually provide the population with medicine? 1292 01:09:39,842 --> 01:09:45,166 I know in Brazil, there's parts of it where for a lot of 1293 01:09:45,166 --> 01:09:52,790 people who were dying with diarrhea, people use like 1294 01:09:52,790 --> 01:09:59,490 these women that were supposed to be known to help them 1295 01:09:59,490 --> 01:10:03,541 somehow, and they were more not really like the typical 1296 01:10:03,541 --> 01:10:06,240 doctor, but they were more like the cultural thing. 1297 01:10:06,240 --> 01:10:07,845 And [INAUDIBLE] 1298 01:10:07,845 --> 01:10:15,220 those persons to deliver the [INAUDIBLE] 1299 01:10:15,220 --> 01:10:20,200 or dehydration solution to actually help those people who 1300 01:10:20,200 --> 01:10:21,196 were dying. 1301 01:10:21,196 --> 01:10:22,200 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1302 01:10:22,200 --> 01:10:23,510 I think that's a great idea. 1303 01:10:23,510 --> 01:10:24,650 I think it's been tried. 1304 01:10:24,650 --> 01:10:27,240 The problem is that then you need to be able to control 1305 01:10:27,240 --> 01:10:29,870 these people, because they already have some authority, 1306 01:10:29,870 --> 01:10:33,750 and then you give them some more authority, and then you 1307 01:10:33,750 --> 01:10:37,060 really are wary of what they start to say. 1308 01:10:37,060 --> 01:10:39,690 So you don't want to transform them into a collection of 1309 01:10:39,690 --> 01:10:42,160 Bengali doctors that are going to give them-- if the 1310 01:10:42,160 --> 01:10:43,640 [INAUDIBLE] start giving antibiotics, 1311 01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:44,890 then you're in trouble. 1312 01:10:47,310 --> 01:10:52,640 But your idea is exactly right, is that basically once 1313 01:10:52,640 --> 01:10:55,400 you've shut down the traditional channels, which 1314 01:10:55,400 --> 01:10:58,320 would be your family doctor that you trust, how do you 1315 01:10:58,320 --> 01:11:01,280 reconstruct some measure of communication that comes from 1316 01:11:01,280 --> 01:11:02,700 other channels? 1317 01:11:02,700 --> 01:11:04,110 And these could be the [INAUDIBLE]. 1318 01:11:04,110 --> 01:11:07,310 These could be television that a lot of people watch. 1319 01:11:12,230 --> 01:11:15,030 In Brazil, actually, it's not about health, 1320 01:11:15,030 --> 01:11:17,422 but it's about fertility. 1321 01:11:17,422 --> 01:11:20,560 People were all watching the soap opera, and in the soap 1322 01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:23,720 opera, the cool people have very few children. 1323 01:11:23,720 --> 01:11:27,680 And there was a study that was done looking at the 1324 01:11:27,680 --> 01:11:29,740 penetration of the soap opera. 1325 01:11:29,740 --> 01:11:33,120 It was on network TV, so it's not always available, but it 1326 01:11:33,120 --> 01:11:36,060 became progressively available in part of Brazil. 1327 01:11:36,060 --> 01:11:39,150 So you can follow the fertility as it becomes 1328 01:11:39,150 --> 01:11:41,370 available in the different part of Brazil. 1329 01:11:41,370 --> 01:11:43,620 And you observe two interesting things. 1330 01:11:43,620 --> 01:11:46,090 One is that as it became available, people had fewer 1331 01:11:46,090 --> 01:11:49,010 kids, and the second is those kids tended to be poor. 1332 01:11:49,010 --> 01:11:53,890 Like the name of the soap opera heroine, the kids had 1333 01:11:53,890 --> 01:11:56,750 started to have those names, which is like the other. 1334 01:11:56,750 --> 01:12:02,280 So other things like that you could try and view imbue. 1335 01:12:02,280 --> 01:12:05,390 I haven't seen evolutions of trying to get health messages 1336 01:12:05,390 --> 01:12:07,490 to go through the television, but these are things that you 1337 01:12:07,490 --> 01:12:10,786 could also try, so use those other channels. 1338 01:12:10,786 --> 01:12:13,960 In the last five minutes, I want to say something about 1339 01:12:13,960 --> 01:12:15,240 the present and the future. 1340 01:12:15,240 --> 01:12:20,160 That's something we are going to get back again, which is 1341 01:12:20,160 --> 01:12:24,700 kind of elaborating on the point you were making before. 1342 01:12:24,700 --> 01:12:27,490 Another problem is that the preventive health cost are 1343 01:12:27,490 --> 01:12:30,330 incurred today, but the benefits are in the future, 1344 01:12:30,330 --> 01:12:32,350 and furthermore, as you pointed out, in 1345 01:12:32,350 --> 01:12:34,160 the uncertain future. 1346 01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:37,280 Like, it is going to happen later. 1347 01:12:37,280 --> 01:12:40,860 So even if you know that it prevents getting measles, you 1348 01:12:40,860 --> 01:12:44,990 don't know whether you would really have gotten measles, 1349 01:12:44,990 --> 01:12:48,530 and it's in the future, sometime later. 1350 01:12:48,530 --> 01:12:51,720 And it turns out, which you can easily verify from 1351 01:12:51,720 --> 01:12:54,440 introspection, is that human beings-- not only the poor, 1352 01:12:54,440 --> 01:12:56,220 but the poor, the rich, everyone-- 1353 01:12:56,220 --> 01:12:59,270 tends to put much more weight on the present than in the 1354 01:12:59,270 --> 01:13:00,980 entire future. 1355 01:13:00,980 --> 01:13:03,590 This is something different than your regular discounting 1356 01:13:03,590 --> 01:13:06,900 that today is more important than tomorrow, and tomorrow is 1357 01:13:06,900 --> 01:13:09,840 more important than day after tomorrow, et cetera. 1358 01:13:09,840 --> 01:13:13,370 This is something that today is much, much more important 1359 01:13:13,370 --> 01:13:16,920 than tomorrow, and then tomorrow and day after, 1360 01:13:16,920 --> 01:13:19,162 tomorrow is little bit more important than day after, and 1361 01:13:19,162 --> 01:13:21,140 day after a little bit more important than the following 1362 01:13:21,140 --> 01:13:22,090 day, et cetera. 1363 01:13:22,090 --> 01:13:25,680 But today is much, much more important compared to the 1364 01:13:25,680 --> 01:13:28,860 entire future in what we're thinking about. 1365 01:13:28,860 --> 01:13:33,130 That's true for consumption, so you would like to save for 1366 01:13:33,130 --> 01:13:34,520 your retirement, but not starting 1367 01:13:34,520 --> 01:13:36,620 today, starting tomorrow. 1368 01:13:36,620 --> 01:13:39,640 It's the same with time. 1369 01:13:39,640 --> 01:13:44,050 I gave you the flexibility of when you're doing essays for 1370 01:13:44,050 --> 01:13:48,280 this class, but I did warn you that in my experience, a lot 1371 01:13:48,280 --> 01:13:51,990 of students will decide to do the five last essays because 1372 01:13:51,990 --> 01:13:54,450 they think from today that it's the absolute optimal 1373 01:13:54,450 --> 01:13:56,280 thing to do because now you're very busy. 1374 01:13:56,280 --> 01:13:58,320 But of course at the end of the semester when all the 1375 01:13:58,320 --> 01:14:00,820 projects are due, and the exams too, you'll 1376 01:14:00,820 --> 01:14:02,660 have much more time. 1377 01:14:02,660 --> 01:14:07,220 So this is something that it doesn't take much to realize 1378 01:14:07,220 --> 01:14:09,330 that there is this problem. 1379 01:14:09,330 --> 01:14:11,590 And not only we have this problem, but we are not fully 1380 01:14:11,590 --> 01:14:12,870 aware of it. 1381 01:14:12,870 --> 01:14:15,880 Because if we were fully aware of it, you would write me an 1382 01:14:15,880 --> 01:14:21,990 email and say can I please commit to a schedule of essays 1383 01:14:21,990 --> 01:14:26,980 and ask Laura or Millicent to enforce them. 1384 01:14:26,980 --> 01:14:31,560 We realize to some extent, but we overestimate. 1385 01:14:31,560 --> 01:14:35,090 We're thinking that today, the present is very important, but 1386 01:14:35,090 --> 01:14:38,250 that tomorrow we will start being reasonable people again. 1387 01:14:38,250 --> 01:14:39,140 [LAUGHTER] 1388 01:14:39,140 --> 01:14:41,210 PROFESSOR: And now tomorrow comes, and tomorrow becomes 1389 01:14:41,210 --> 01:14:47,550 today, and again today is so important, and we get fooled 1390 01:14:47,550 --> 01:14:49,790 by ourselves like that repeatedly. 1391 01:14:49,790 --> 01:14:52,530 So with the immunization, you can think this can be 1392 01:14:52,530 --> 01:14:54,750 available every month. 1393 01:14:54,750 --> 01:14:59,070 So you're today I'm just so busy, I can't go, but I will 1394 01:14:59,070 --> 01:15:00,130 go next month. 1395 01:15:00,130 --> 01:15:02,990 Then next month comes, and then it's next month. 1396 01:15:02,990 --> 01:15:05,610 And next month is now today, and you're so busy 1397 01:15:05,610 --> 01:15:06,810 that you can't go. 1398 01:15:06,810 --> 01:15:09,526 And that's way, you could procrastinate. 1399 01:15:09,526 --> 01:15:11,438 AUDIENCE: After [INAUDIBLE] 1400 01:15:11,438 --> 01:15:13,828 an experiment with decreasing incentives? 1401 01:15:13,828 --> 01:15:17,891 Like if you said people who turn in essays, like the first 1402 01:15:17,891 --> 01:15:20,495 five would get 10 extra points, and the next five 1403 01:15:20,495 --> 01:15:23,405 wouldn't get 10 extra points, most people would do the first 1404 01:15:23,405 --> 01:15:24,860 five essays just to [INAUDIBLE]. 1405 01:15:24,860 --> 01:15:25,345 PROFESSOR: Yeah. 1406 01:15:25,345 --> 01:15:26,315 You're exactly right. 1407 01:15:26,315 --> 01:15:29,540 The intuition is exactly right, which is if we suffer 1408 01:15:29,540 --> 01:15:34,250 from things like that, giving us small incentive to act 1409 01:15:34,250 --> 01:15:39,510 today rather than tomorrow will help. 1410 01:15:39,510 --> 01:15:42,100 For example, this idea of saying if you're doing the 1411 01:15:42,100 --> 01:15:45,570 first five, you're getting 10 extra points for the first 1412 01:15:45,570 --> 01:15:46,820 five, that helps. 1413 01:15:50,110 --> 01:15:52,400 I could also have a disincentive, which is to say 1414 01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:55,730 you get 10 negative points if you give them later. 1415 01:15:55,730 --> 01:15:58,910 In principle, if you have some awareness of this problem, you 1416 01:15:58,910 --> 01:16:01,910 should like this program, because you should like the 1417 01:16:01,910 --> 01:16:05,670 idea of putting some incentive on yourself to act today 1418 01:16:05,670 --> 01:16:07,320 rather than tomorrow. 1419 01:16:07,320 --> 01:16:10,520 And so with preventive care, the problem is that in the 1420 01:16:10,520 --> 01:16:16,470 developing world, the costs tend to be higher than for us. 1421 01:16:16,470 --> 01:16:19,140 With immunization, like not only you have to go, but half 1422 01:16:19,140 --> 01:16:21,660 of the time she's not there, and all of that. 1423 01:16:21,660 --> 01:16:24,510 So it's constructed exactly the other way, which is a 1424 01:16:24,510 --> 01:16:28,010 small cost, everything becomes a little bit more complicated. 1425 01:16:28,010 --> 01:16:32,010 In our lives, everything is structured to make the small 1426 01:16:32,010 --> 01:16:36,200 cost less costly, and also to impose schedule on us. 1427 01:16:36,200 --> 01:16:39,640 For example, for immunization, you have a calendar that is 1428 01:16:39,640 --> 01:16:42,090 given by the government that you have to follow. 1429 01:16:42,090 --> 01:16:44,460 Otherwise the kids can't go to school, but since kids have to 1430 01:16:44,460 --> 01:16:46,480 be in school, you have to follow that. 1431 01:16:46,480 --> 01:16:49,410 So it's a form of incentive, very strong incentive, to make 1432 01:16:49,410 --> 01:16:50,650 it compulsory. 1433 01:16:50,650 --> 01:16:54,360 And the lentils is saying there is a small cost of 1434 01:16:54,360 --> 01:16:57,860 going, but in extent of this small cost, you get a small 1435 01:16:57,860 --> 01:17:00,740 benefit, which is the lentils. 1436 01:17:00,740 --> 01:17:05,030 And so that can help people to go. 1437 01:17:05,030 --> 01:17:07,230 And you're right that combining your two ideas, I 1438 01:17:07,230 --> 01:17:10,320 could say you're going to get a bigger incentive if you 1439 01:17:10,320 --> 01:17:12,520 follow the schedule than if you go at any point. 1440 01:17:12,520 --> 01:17:15,130 And that way, that gives us a strong sense 1441 01:17:15,130 --> 01:17:16,630 of doing it on time. 1442 01:17:19,950 --> 01:17:24,640 So these procrastination issues, combining with the 1443 01:17:24,640 --> 01:17:30,050 fact that people have probably not a full understanding of 1444 01:17:30,050 --> 01:17:36,160 the benefits, could explain why we see this huge waste. 1445 01:17:36,160 --> 01:17:39,330 Because we really have to call this as a waste, all of this. 1446 01:17:39,330 --> 01:17:40,790 Kids who are not immunized. 1447 01:17:40,790 --> 01:17:42,570 Kids who are not dewormed. 1448 01:17:42,570 --> 01:17:46,500 Kids who drink dirty water, and adults also. 1449 01:17:46,500 --> 01:17:50,620 And that could come from this combination of not fully 1450 01:17:50,620 --> 01:17:55,060 understand the benefits, not trusting what you are told, 1451 01:17:55,060 --> 01:17:58,710 and the disproportionate importance of small cost. 1452 01:17:58,710 --> 01:18:00,420 How can we solve it? 1453 01:18:00,420 --> 01:18:02,100 Well, we can solve it by making 1454 01:18:02,100 --> 01:18:04,020 things as easy as possible. 1455 01:18:04,020 --> 01:18:06,990 This is what we benefit from. 1456 01:18:06,990 --> 01:18:10,330 When you open the tap in your water, there is chlorine that 1457 01:18:10,330 --> 01:18:11,040 comes, right? 1458 01:18:11,040 --> 01:18:13,630 You don't have to remember to add the tablet. 1459 01:18:13,630 --> 01:18:16,330 So making things automatic and defaulted. 1460 01:18:16,330 --> 01:18:19,210 And when it's not possible, like you're not a very well 1461 01:18:19,210 --> 01:18:22,090 organized country like India, giving people small rewards 1462 01:18:22,090 --> 01:18:27,210 that are offsetting the small cost, if possible exactly in 1463 01:18:27,210 --> 01:18:30,050 the way that you're talking about it, which is [INAUDIBLE] 1464 01:18:30,050 --> 01:18:32,720 people to do it later rather than earlier. 1465 01:18:35,330 --> 01:18:38,230 That means that charging a small amount for goods may be 1466 01:18:38,230 --> 01:18:40,740 totally counterproductive because you might lose a lot 1467 01:18:40,740 --> 01:18:43,320 of people when you have your entire infrastructure to 1468 01:18:43,320 --> 01:18:44,860 deliver the goods. 1469 01:18:44,860 --> 01:18:48,235 And giving small incentive might actually be productive. 1470 01:18:52,760 --> 01:18:54,010 The last word would be-- 1471 01:18:58,170 --> 01:19:00,630 and that's the question of the bed net that we spent a whole 1472 01:19:00,630 --> 01:19:04,080 lecture on-- is it going to have some bad effect in the 1473 01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:07,590 future if people are used to be helped in this way? 1474 01:19:07,590 --> 01:19:09,260 And I think the answer is two prongs. 1475 01:19:09,260 --> 01:19:11,150 Some of these problems are here to stay. 1476 01:19:11,150 --> 01:19:13,220 It's not that we have them today, and it will be better 1477 01:19:13,220 --> 01:19:14,100 in the future. 1478 01:19:14,100 --> 01:19:15,410 We always have those problems. 1479 01:19:15,410 --> 01:19:19,280 That's why immunization in the US is free and compulsory, and 1480 01:19:19,280 --> 01:19:21,080 it's going to be forever. 1481 01:19:21,080 --> 01:19:24,440 We're not expecting that one day people will now understand 1482 01:19:24,440 --> 01:19:27,570 the value and will start doing it on their own. 1483 01:19:27,570 --> 01:19:31,310 Secondly is when we think about the dynamic effect, we 1484 01:19:31,310 --> 01:19:33,490 also have to include learning. 1485 01:19:33,490 --> 01:19:37,840 And because of the lack of trust and people don't just 1486 01:19:37,840 --> 01:19:41,900 believe you because you say something, the fact of giving 1487 01:19:41,900 --> 01:19:44,900 people an occasion to try for themselves by making things 1488 01:19:44,900 --> 01:19:48,060 very easy and cheap may actually have those dynamic 1489 01:19:48,060 --> 01:19:50,830 effects that are positive because of the learning. 1490 01:19:50,830 --> 01:19:53,850 Which is exactly what we saw with the bed nets. 1491 01:19:53,850 --> 01:19:57,730 We don't need to go over it again, but with the bed net, 1492 01:19:57,730 --> 01:19:59,450 people were probably relatively suspicious about 1493 01:19:59,450 --> 01:20:01,510 the effectiveness of those bed nets. 1494 01:20:01,510 --> 01:20:02,730 You give them one-- 1495 01:20:02,730 --> 01:20:04,670 [INAUDIBLE] not willing to pay the cost. 1496 01:20:04,670 --> 01:20:06,730 You give them one for free, and then they realize the 1497 01:20:06,730 --> 01:20:09,850 benefits are bigger than what they were, and that can 1498 01:20:09,850 --> 01:20:12,690 overcome the small cost to get the benefits in the future now 1499 01:20:12,690 --> 01:20:16,940 that they're convinced that those benefits actually exist. 1500 01:20:16,940 --> 01:20:19,670 So we're done with health, and we are going to start with 1501 01:20:19,670 --> 01:20:20,920 education next time.