Do Economic Incentives Increase Blood Donation: Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone, West Africa

We examine the effects of incentives on blood donation rates. The study evaluates both extrinsic incentives (tangible rewards) and intrinsic incentives (informational nudges appealing to internal motivations). To inform the study design, we first held focus group discussions with healthcare workers and community members and conducted surveys among members of the public in 10 of Sierra Leone’s 16 districts. The goal was to understand baseline characteristics and assess the appropriateness of the interventions.
For the experiment, in each of the same 10 districts, four communities were randomly assigned initially to one of four arms: a control group, an 8-gigabyte mobile phone data bundle, a 20-gigabyte mobile phone data bundle, or a sit-down full meal. During the first phase of the experiment, we observed that mobile data bundles and portions of cooked meals were being traded for cash in an informal market, and participants across all groups expressed a preference for direct monetary compensation. In response, we implemented a parallel experiment that included three additional communities per district. These new communities were randomly assigned to receive either a Le 30 (US$1.30) transport reimbursement, a Le 60 (US$2.60) transport reimbursement, or no transport reimbursement (control).
With the exception of participants in the full sit-down meal arm, all donors receive light refreshments after donating blood. Participants in the initial experimental groups receive one of two variants of informational nudges emphasizing the importance of blood donation or neutral information about donation intervals for men and women.