Reporting Intensity Dual-Margin Divergence

Picture this

Think of an online review site where adding real-world penalties for bad drivers makes average passengers hesitant to press the "Report" button. But the aggrieved passengers who do press it leave maximum 1-star reviews and write detailed descriptions of bad behavior because they know their review actually carries teeth.

What the evidence says

While tangible provider consequences reduced the overall probability of a patient filing a complaint by 7.4 to 10.3 percentage points (extensive margin), conditional on filing a complaint, patients increased complaint severity by sending 1.053 additional frowning cards in Peer Disclosure (p < 0.05) and 0.771 additional cards in Monetary Penalty (p < 0.05), representing a 33% to 44% increase over the control mean of 2.436 cards.

Who was studied

N = 164 trusting patients (subsample from 216 total patients) in Nairobi, Kenya, evaluating complaint choices across discrete return scenarios.

How

Econometric estimation of patient decisions using strategy elicitation, differentiating binary complaint filing probability (extensive margin) from the number of complaint cards sent (1 to 5 cards, intensive margin) across accountability treatments relative to Complaint Box control.

What to do

Separate complaint system metrics into participation rate and grievance severity indicators to accurately interpret citizen feedback data when designing public service oversight mechanisms.

From the source

"However, conditional on filing reports, the interventions lead to greater intensity of complaints (measured by the number of cards sent)."

e7b318f7-c10f-44ea-935a-6f4ab3cde66a-Health Workers’ Behavior, Patient Reporting and Reputational Concerns- Lab-in-the-Field Experimental Evidence from Kenya.pdf

Tags

• extensive margin
• intensive margin
• complaint severity