Public health insurance targeted towards low-income households has gained traction in many developing countries. However, there is limited evidence as to the effectiveness of these programs in countries where institutional constraints may limit participation by the eligible population. This paper evaluates a recent health insurance initiative introduced in Pakistan and discusses whether eligibility for the programme improves maternal health seeking behaviour. The Prime Minister National Health Program provides free insurance coverage to low-income families. The programme is in the early phases of implementation and has, since 2016, only been rolled out in a few eligible districts within the country. This allows for a comparison of eligible households in districts where the programme has been introduced to those that are eligible to receive insurance at a future date. Using repeated cross-sectional data from multiple rounds of representative household survey, a difference-in-difference model has been estimated. Results show that at least for a specific beneficiary group (i.e. pregnant women), there has been a positive increase in utilization of hospital services. Furthermore, we provide evidence using mother fixed effects that the programme increased the likelihood of a child’s birth being documented. Since possession of a birth certificate can secure civic rights for a child, this is an unintended but positive outcome of the programme.
Food, water, and energy (FWE) policies often entail contentious tradeoffs. For example, increasing food production may involve irrigation from riparian sources that may adversely impact fisheries habitats, the siting of solar energy on agricultural lands can impact food production, and increasing food production capacity may require pesticides in certain locations, resulting in environmental pollution. Because public preferences are an important component of support for and opposition to FWE policy design and implementation, it is important to understand the correlates of support and opposition to FWE policy tradeoffs. Using survey data from random household surveys conducted in western U.S. states during 2018, this study examined how environmental efficacy, values, and knowledge affected FWE public tradeoff preferences. The findings suggest that these characteristics do affect public FWE tradeoff preferences, with knowledge being a strong driver of support for food production over biofuels, water friendly crops over meat production and conservation over water intensive agriculture. Additionally, environmental efficacy and pro-ecological attitudes drive support for access to safe drinking water and sanitation over food security for a growing population.
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