Learning in health care: Evidence of learning about clinician quality in Tanzania

The choices of health care providers made by households in Iringa rural district of Tanzania were examined. Choices made were matched with data on the quality of care and tenure of clinicians at a series of facilities in the immediate area in order to estimate the willingness to pay for quality in muntinomial probit regression. Patients appeared to prefer clinicians who are new to clinicians who have been present for a long time. People who lived near to each other exhibited similar, unpredicted behavior only for that period of time in which people should be learning about quality. Overall, data show that there is learning but it takes a long time to alter behavior.