Improving Maternal Health Using Incentives for Mothers and Health Care Workers: Evidence from India

This paper studies the role of incentives for mothers and health care workers in the use of maternal and child health services. Using variations in date of birth, eligibility, and transfer size for a conditional cash transfer program in India, I find that overall delivery at a health care facility for eligible women increased by 5 percentage points. The incentives also significantly increased the use of pre- and postnatal care services and immunization. The program reduced early-neonatal deaths but had no impact on late-neonatal mortality. I also find that larger incentives to health workers are associated with relatively higher utilization rates compared with larger incentives to mothers.