Integrating Economic Analysis with a Randomized Controlled Trial: Willingness-to-Pay for a New Maternal Nutrient Supplement

Maternal nutrition during pregnancy can have significant implications for a child’s prenatal growth and development, and undernutrition experienced during the prenatal period increases the risk of early childhood morbidity and mortality and can permanently impair a child’s physical growth and cognitive development. We use new data from Ghana generated using contingent valuation and experimental auction techniques to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) for LNS, a new nutrient supplement aimed at preventing maternal undernutrition during pregnancy. We also explore the relative importance of individual and household characteristics as well as information about the long-term benefits of preventing undernutrition on WTP. We find that WTP is positive for a large majority of individuals in our samples, and the level of WTP varies significantly with individual and household characteristics including gender, household food insecurity, and household expenditures. These findings suggest important policy implications for the development of delivery options and pricing mechanisms for LNS.