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Conditional cash lotteries increase COVID-19 vaccination rates

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  • Barber, Andrew
  • West, Jeremy

Abstract

Conditional cash lotteries (CCLs) provide people with opportunities to win monetary prizes only if they make specific behavioral changes. We conduct a case study of Ohio’s Vax-A-Million initiative, the first CCL targeting COVID-19 vaccinations. Forming a synthetic control from other states, we find that Ohios incentive scheme increases the vaccinated share of state population by 1.5 percent (0.7 pp), costing sixty-eight dollars per person persuaded to vaccinate. We show this causes significant reductions in COVID-19, preventing at least one infection for every six vaccinations that the lottery had successfully encouraged. These findings are promising for similar CCL public health initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Barber, Andrew & West, Jeremy, 2022. "Conditional cash lotteries increase COVID-19 vaccination rates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:81:y:2022:i:c:s0167629621001636
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102578
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    Cited by:

    1. Orhan Erdem & Sukran Erdem & Kelly Monson, 2023. "Children, vaccines, and financial incentives," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 537-552, December.
    2. Victoria Baudisch & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2023. "Costly, but (Relatively) Ineffective? An Assessment of Germany’s Temporary VAT Rate Reduction During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Research Papers in Economics 2023-04, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    3. Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2021. "When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up," GLO Discussion Paper Series 999, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Xinrui Zhang & Tom Lane, 2022. "The backfiring effects of monetary and gift incentives on Covid-19 vaccination willingness," Discussion Papers 2022-14, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    5. Tinglong Dai & Sridhar Tayur, 2022. "Designing AI‐augmented healthcare delivery systems for physician buy‐in and patient acceptance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4443-4451, December.
    6. Rowan Terrell & Abdallah Alami & Daniel Krewski, 2023. "Interventions for COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Reddinger, J. Lucas & Charness, Gary & Levine, David, 2022. "Prosocial motivation for vaccination," SocArXiv emj6v, Center for Open Science.
    8. Sylwia Kałucka & Ewa Kusideł & Izabela Grzegorczyk-Karolak, 2022. "A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study on the Risk of Getting Sick with COVID-19, the Course of the Disease, and the Impact of the National Vaccination Program against SARS-CoV-2 on Vaccination among H," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-17, June.
    9. Alexander Karaivanov & Dongwoo Kim & Shih En Lu & Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2022. "COVID-19 vaccination mandates and vaccine uptake," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(12), pages 1615-1624, December.
    10. Bonander, Carl & Ekman, Mats & Jakobsson, Niklas, 2022. "Vaccination nudges: A study of pre-booked COVID-19 vaccinations in Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    11. Steinmayr, Andreas & Rossi, Manuel, 2022. "Vaccine-Skeptic Physicians and COVID-19 Vaccination Rates," IZA Discussion Papers 15730, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Carl Bonander & Mats Ekman & Niklas Jakobsson, 2023. "When do default nudges work?," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 2, pages 391-425.
    13. Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2023. "When reality bites: Local deaths and vaccine take-up," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    14. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "Would Monetary Incentives to COVID-19 vaccination reduce motivation?," Papers 2311.11828, arXiv.org.
    15. Sangkwon Kim & Youngjin Hwang & Chaeyoung Lee & Soobin Kwak & Junseok Kim, 2023. "Estimation of Total Cost Required in Controlling COVID-19 Outbreaks by Financial Incentives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-15, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health policy; Financial incentives; Behavioral economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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