Estimating the private benefits of vaccination against cholera in Beira, Mozambique: A travel cost approach

Abstract

This paper reports the results of the first study that estimates households' private demand for cholera vaccines using the travel cost method. We take advantage of an unusual natural experiment. In January 2004, more than 41,000 residents from various locations in Beira, Mozambique received two doses of oral cholera vaccine free of charge during the first vaccination trial to test its effectiveness in an endemic cholera zone of Africa. About 30,000 people participated from outside the target zone, resulting in long queues and an average waiting time of about 85 min per dose. We estimated travel cost models of the revealed demand for cholera vaccines among households informed of the trial using information collected in in-person interviews conducted during the summer of 2005. To explore households' participation in the trial, we used standard and zero-inflated household count models for all household members and dichotomous choice models for the head of the household. Our analysis shows that the quantity of vaccines obtained by households and the likelihood of participation decreased as travel cost—in time and transport expenses—rose. Our best estimates of per capita willingness to pay for the two required doses of cholera vaccine are about 0.85 USD. These estimates are sensitive to the assumed value of time spent acquiring vaccines.