Improving the Availability of Unrelated Stem Cell Donors: Evidence from a Major Donor Registry / Michael Haylock, Patrick Kampkötter, Mario Macis, Jürgen Sauter, Susanne Seitz, Robert Slonim, Daniel Wiesen, Alexander H. Schmidt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haylock, Michael.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kampkötter, Patrick.

Macis, Mario.

Sauter, Jürgen.

Seitz, Susanne.

Slonim, Robert.

Wiesen, Daniel.

Schmidt, Alexander H.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w29857.

NBER working paper series no. w29857

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.

Summary:

The unavailability of potential stem cell donors poses a critical challenge for donor registries worldwide. This study investigates the impact of initiatives of a stem cell donor registry to enhance donors' availability for confirmatory typing. Initiatives ask donors to provide a sample for genetic analysis and/or information on their temporal unavailability. We analyzed 91,479 confirmatory typing requests from DKMS Germany, a large stem cell donor registry, exploiting a quasi-random initiative assignment based on observable characteristics. We find that, first, invitation to the initiatives increases donors' availability. Intention-to-treat estimates yield effects ranging from 2.5 to 3.2 percentage points, and local average treatment effects estimates range from 3.8 to 8.2 percentage points (baseline: 77.1%). Second, the difference in availability between participants and non-participants is over 10 percentage points. The initiatives yield a direct positive effect on donor availability and a selection effect through which participation signals a higher commitment.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2022.