Incentivized Peer Referrals for Tuberculosis Screening: Evidence from India

We study whether and how peer referrals increase screening, testing, identification of patients with tuberculosis, an infectious disease responsible for over one million deaths annually. In experiment 3,176 at 122 tuberculosis treatment centers in India, we find that small financial incentives raise the probability existing refer prospective screening resulting cost-effective new cases. Incentivized operate through two mechanisms: peers have private information about individuals their social networks to target outreach, they are more effective than health workers inducing these get tested. (JEL H51, I12, I18, O15, Z13)