Abstract
Family planning program managers may be easily misled by conclusions about the effects of price increases on the demand for services when the findings are based on pre-experiments such as the single-group pretest-posttest study, generally believed to be practical. This report presents financial and service data from clinics of the Asociación Pro-Bienestar de la Familia Ecuatoriana (APROFE) in Ecuador, which, analyzed according to the single-group pretest-posttest design, would suggest that the demand for intrauterine device services is inelastic. However, considerable demand elasticity is detected when data are analyzed according to more rigorous quasi-experimental designs. Using the single-group pretest-posttest design for pricing studies is too flawed to be considered practical. Wherever possible, strong designs should be used in operations research, especially in pricing studies.
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