|Distance to closest urban center|||0.001|||0.001|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|- Urban set to 0|||(0.07)|||(0.07)|
|Distance to closest bus/train|||.001|||.001|
|stop|||(0.31)|||(0.34)|
|Village chief has secondary|||-.036|||-0.039|
|education|||(0.33)|||(0.29)|
|Most common language is the|||-0.084|||-0.080|
|same in the village and the|||(0.24)|||(0.27)|
|commune|||||||
|Observations|4,088|4,088|3,565|4,088|4,088|3,565|
|R-squared|0.08|0.09|0.12|0.09|0.09|0.12|

Note: All specifications estimated with ordinary least squares, with commune fixed effects. Robust _p_ -values, with standard errors clustered at the village level, reported in parentheses. Coefficient estimates of the following controls are insignificant and not reported: ethnic dummies (Bariba, Yoa/Lokpa, Ditamari); gender and ages of household head and respondent; whether respondent has completed elementary, secondary or higher education; religion and marital status of respondent; number of adults in the household; whether the household has a mobile phone or TV; whether the village chief has a primary education; the population of the village; whether the village has a secondary school, literacy center or health or maternity center; presence of a paved road; number of functional private schools; the number of potable water sources; the probability any two households speak the same language at home.

Results on other covariates are also consistent with what is known about clientelism, and about education institutions in Benin. Catholic schools are common in Benin (for example, the Catholic diocese of Natitingou in northwest Benin, part of our study area, has 45 schools). Though Catholic and Muslim respondents are no different from others in their preferences over health versus jobs candidates (these variables are insignificant in Table 4), between 6 and 7 percent fewer Catholic respondents preferred the jobs candidate to the education candidate.

Another noteworthy covariate of preferences for jobs, found in both the health and education vignettes, concerns household visits made by health workers. These are an important element of government and donor strategies to control malaria, and in general for public health outreach, in Benin and elsewhere and could have an important effect on household information about and valuation of public services. Our survey therefore asked households whether they were recently visited by a health worker. In fact, adding this control to the third and sixth specifications of Tables 4 and 5 leaves the estimated coefficients on the community radio variable or the interaction with number of children unchanged (results not reported). However, these visits are significantly associated with reduced preferences for jobs compared to health or education. For example, the fraction of households that express support for the jobs benefit over education cis almost ten percentage points lower among households that have received a visit from a health worker.

This is a striking association, consistent with the idea that households that have received such a visit are more likely to value political promises to improve public services. While it is not possible to make causal inferences about this variable – visits by health workers could be endogenous to the political attitudes of households and their demand for health and education– the association points to an area of future research. The fact that households receive a visit may give them greater information about the value of public health, and greater confidence in the ability of politicians to implement promises to improve health delivery, thereby increasing the credibility of such promises.

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