Different Strokes for Different Folks? Experimental Evidence on the Effectiveness of Input and Output Incentive Contracts for Health Care Providers with Varying Skills

A central issue in designing incentive contracts is the decision to reward agents’ input use versus outputs. The trade-off between risk and return innovation production can also lead agents with varying skill levels perform differentially under different contracts. We study this experimentally, observing verifying inputs outputs Indian maternity care. find that both contract types achieve comparable reductions postpartum hemorrhage rates, but payments for were four times of inputs. Providers qualifications performed equivalently incentives, while providers advanced may have better output (JEL D82, D86, I12, J13, J16, J41, O15)