Impact Study of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs)
In collaboration with BISWA , the CMF is undertaking a study to examine the impact of ITNs on health (particularly malarial morbidity and mortality), household productivity and labour supply, and willingness to pay and suggest the best mechanism to encourage uptake of treated nets, led by Professors Aprajit Mahajan (Stanford University) and Alessandro Tarozzi (Duke University).

The ITN study seeks to answer the following questions: what are the most appropriate preventive measures to combat malaria from a medical and behavioral perspective; what factors, financial and other, determine the usage of malarial prophylactics by the households and what are the intra-household patterns of utilization; what is the direct effect of these preventive measures on the lives of the individuals in the households; and the extent of externalities—the indirect effect of prophylactics on the other members of the community.

This project attempts to identify a high impact intervention which is complementary to micro finance and can have a strong and near-term impact on the household. If a positive impact is clearly discernable, it may be possible to design micro finance products to encourage the households to buy the nets and thus produce positive income and risk effects through increased productivity and lowered risk of ill-health, possibly maximising the impact of micro finance.