O impacto do Programa Farmácia Popular sobre o consumo de bens duráveis de famílias com portadores de doenças crônicas

Abstract

There is a gap in the literature regarding the economic effects of the Brazilian Popular Pharmacy Program (PFPB) on spending on durable goods considering matching methods and disaggregated data. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the impact of PFPB on the consumption of durable goods considering individuals with chronic diseases (hypertension or diabetes or both). To do so, we compare households where all the medication for diabetes, hypertension or both were acquired through the PFPB (treated) with households in which families make full disbursement (controls). Data were collected from the National Health Survey (PNS) 2013. Seven different techniques are employed, among them the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Propensity Score Weighting (PSW) matching methods, considering the complex sample structure of the PNS constituting the main contribution of the paper. The results indicate that the program has a positive impact on the sub-sample of households with both diseases regarding the probability of owning a car and on the acquired amounts by the family of cell phones, computers, and automobiles. For the same sub-sample, there is a positive and significant average effect on the index of consumption of durable goods, with lower consumption levels being the most affected by the PFPB.