title: What criteria guide national entrepreneurs' policy decisions on user fee removal for maternal health care services? Use of a best-worst scaling choice experiment in West Africa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have implemented policies to remove or reduce user fees. Our aim was to identify criteria guiding such decisions among national policy entrepreneurs, those who link up problem definition, solution development and political processes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We administered a best-worst scaling (BWS) experiment to 89 policy entrepreneurs, asking them to identify the most and the least important criteria on a series of predefined sets. Sets were compiled using a Balance Incomplete Block Design which generated random combinations of all 11 criteria included in the experiment. In turn, those had emerged from a prior set of focus group discussions organized among policy entrepreneurs. Ordered logit models were used to investigate the value of single criteria as well as heterogeneity of preferences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Political commitment was identified as the most important criterion guiding policy decisions on user fee abolition or reduction to the overall sample, but particularly so for more experienced respondents aged over 50 years. International pressure and donor money were identified as least important while equity and institutional capacity were deemed of relatively little importance. Respondents more involved in advising on policy than on formulating policy rated economic issues such as financial sustainability and cost-effectiveness as less important.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is feasible to apply BWS experiments in low-income countries, although whether the technique can be adjusted to elicit preferences among non-literate respondents in these settings is unclear.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department for Policy Analysis and Public Management, Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management-CERGAS, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Italy aleksandra.torbica@unibocconi.it.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torbica
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Allegri
authors.affiliation: Researcher, Institut de recherche en sciences de la santé(IRSS), CNRST, Burkina Faso.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Belemsaga
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Health Economics Group, University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Antonieta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Medina-Lara
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) and University of Montreal School of Public Health, Canada.
authors.forename: Valery
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ridde
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D000354:Africa, Western; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D016520:Entrepreneurship / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005251:Fees, Medical; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: best–worst scaling; policy making; user fees