Voodoo, vaccines and bed nets
We provide the first quantitative analysis to scrutinize the ample ethnographic evidence that magico-religious beliefs affect the demand for conventional healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. We rely on the unique case of Benin, where Voodoo-adherence is freely reported, and varies greatly within villages and even within households, yet can be traced to historic events that are arguably exogenous to present-day healthcare behavior. These features allow us to account for confounding village- and household-factors, and address self-selection into Voodoo. We find that Voodoo adherence of the mother is associated with lower uptake of preventive healthcare measures and worse child health outcomes, a relationship that weakens but remains when controlling for village dummies and a large set of observables. We employ three different strategies to test for the potential influence of unobservables. The results suggest that the estimated Voodoo-effects are partly causal. A tentative exploration of the causal mechanisms suggests a mediating role of traditional healers.
Year of publication: |
2017
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Authors: | Stoop, Nik ; Verpoorten, Marijke ; Deconinck, Koen |
Publisher: |
Leuven : Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance |
Saved in:
freely available
Series: | LICOS Discussion Paper ; 394 |
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Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Type of publication (narrower categories): | Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Other identifiers: | 884014355 [GVK] hdl:10419/172046 [Handle] |
Source: |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011759094
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