I conduct a randomized audit study in the Ugandan antimalarial drug market to test whether providers adjust prices or prescribing behavior when patients are less reliant on their advice. Standardized patients (SPs) purchase drugs using scripts that vary whether the SP (1) self-diagnoses malaria or asks for a diagnosis and/or (2) knows the first-line treatment or asks for a recommendation. I find that when SPs self-diagnose malaria or recite information about first-line treatment, providers charge US$0.16 (4.5%) less. However, providers are 7 percentage points (18%) less likely to advise malaria diagnostic testing, consistent with worse prescribing behavior.

中文翻译：

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患者诊断时：患者信念和信息对提供者行为的影响

我在乌干达抗疟药市场进行了一项随机审计研究，以测试当患者不太依赖他们的建议时，提供者是否会调整价格或处方行为。标准化患者 (SP) 使用不同的脚本购买药物，无论 SP (1) 是自我诊断疟疾还是要求进行诊断和/或 (2) 知道一线治疗或要求推荐。我发现当 SP 自我诊断疟疾或背诵有关一线治疗的信息时，提供者收取的费用少 0.16 美元（4.5%）。然而，提供者建议疟疾诊断测试的可能性要低 7 个百分点 (18%)，这与更糟糕的处方行为一致。