The demand for a malaria vaccine: evidence from Ethiopia

This study measures the monetary value households place on preventing malaria in Tigray, Ethiopia. We estimate a household demand function for a hypothetical malaria vaccine and compute the value of preventing malaria as the household's maximum willingness to pay to provide vaccines for all family members. This is contrasted with the traditional costs of illness (medical costs and lost productivity). Our results indicate that the value of preventing malaria with vaccines is about US$36 per household per year, or about 15% of imputed annual household income. This is, on average, about twice the expected household cost of illness. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.