Handouts of antimalaria mosquito nets trump social marketing

Social marketing -- with the theory that the poor see more value in brand-name goods they pay for than handouts they get free, and that the trade creates small entrepreneurs -- for mosquito nets does not work as well as straight handouts:

... 3.4 million free nets in two weeks. Coverage rose to 67 percent, and distribution became more equitable. Under social marketing, Dr. Olumese said, the “richest of the poor” had 38 percent coverage, while the “poorest of the poor” — like Maendeleo’s rice farmers — had only 15 percent. After the handouts, they were about equal.
Deaths of children dropped 44 percent.