IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v113y2024ics221480432400137x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adding nudge-based reminders to financial incentives for promoting antibody testing and vaccination to prevent the spread of rubella

Author

Listed:
  • Kato, Hiroki
  • Sasaki, Shusaku
  • Ohtake, Fumio

Abstract

We study the effects of combining financial incentives with nudges to promote antibody testing and vaccination to prevent the spread of rubella. In 2019, the Japanese government began providing vouchers for free antibody testing and vaccination to men aged 40–57 years. Vouchers were automatically mailed to 40–46-year-old men in 2019. Those aged 47–57 would receive vouchers after April 2020, while they could obtain vouchers for undertaking antibody testing and being vaccinated in 2019 by applying. Focusing on this policy distinction, we conducted an online field experiment with Japanese 40–57-year-old men in February and March 2020. We randomly provided six nudge-based reminder messages recommending antibody testing and vaccination and tracked self-reported behavior until March of 2020. One nudge-based reminder with an altruistic message on fetal harm through infection from men to pregnant women significantly promoted antibody testing among the 40–46-year-old men who had already received vouchers as a financial incentive. This message could also encourage their vaccinations. In contrast, any nudge-based reminder had no promoting effect for the 47–57-year-old men who must apply for vouchers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kato, Hiroki & Sasaki, Shusaku & Ohtake, Fumio, 2024. "Adding nudge-based reminders to financial incentives for promoting antibody testing and vaccination to prevent the spread of rubella," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:113:y:2024:i:c:s221480432400137x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2024.102300
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221480432400137X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2024.102300?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John A. List & Azeem M. Shaikh & Yang Xu, 2019. "Multiple hypothesis testing in experimental economics," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(4), pages 773-793, December.
    2. Sasaki, Shusaku & Saito, Tomoya & Ohtake, Fumio, 2022. "Nudges for COVID-19 voluntary vaccination: How to explain peer information?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Simon Gachter & Ernst Fehr, 2000. "Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 980-994, September.
    4. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew J Notowidigdo, 2019. "Take-Up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1505-1556.
    5. Katherine L. Milkman & Mitesh S. Patel & Linnea Gandhi & Heather N. Graci & Dena M. Gromet & Hung Ho & Joseph S. Kay & Timothy W. Lee & Modupe Akinola & John Beshears & Jonathan E. Bogard & Alison But, 2021. "A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor’s appointment," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(20), pages 2101165118-, May.
    6. Barber, Andrew & West, Jeremy, 2022. "Conditional cash lotteries increase COVID-19 vaccination rates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Francis, Peter J., 1997. "Dynamic epidemiology and the market for vaccinations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 383-406, February.
    8. Seema Kacker & Mario Macis & Prateek Gajwani & David S. Friedman, 2022. "Providing vouchers and value information for already free eye exams increases uptake among a low‐income minority population: A randomized trial," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 541-551, March.
    9. Leonardo Bursztyn & Stefano Fiorin & Daniel Gottlieb & Martin Kanz, 2019. "Moral Incentives in Credit Card Debt Repayment: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1641-1683.
    10. Bronchetti, Erin Todd & Huffman, David B. & Magenheim, Ellen, 2015. "Attention, intentions, and follow-through in preventive health behavior: Field experimental evidence on flu vaccination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 270-291.
    11. Stefano DellaVigna & Elizabeth Linos, 2022. "RCTs to Scale: Comprehensive Evidence From Two Nudge Units," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 81-116, January.
    12. Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2001. "Choice and Procrastination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 121-160.
    13. Ahmed, Shakil & Khan, M. Mahmud, 2011. "Is demand-side financing equity enhancing? Lessons from a maternal health voucher scheme in Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1704-1710, May.
    14. Gordon Burtch & Yili Hong & Ravi Bapna & Vladas Griskevicius, 2018. "Stimulating Online Reviews by Combining Financial Incentives and Social Norms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(5), pages 2065-2082, May.
    15. Hallsworth, Michael & List, John A. & Metcalfe, Robert D. & Vlaev, Ivo, 2017. "The behavioralist as tax collector: Using natural field experiments to enhance tax compliance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 14-31.
    16. Shusaku Sasaki & Hirofumi Kurokawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Effective but fragile? Responses to repeated nudge-based messages for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 371-408, July.
    17. Barham, Tania & Maluccio, John A., 2009. "Eradicating diseases: The effect of conditional cash transfers on vaccination coverage in rural Nicaragua," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 611-621, May.
    18. David Yokum & Julie C. Lauffenburger & Roya Ghazinouri & Niteesh K. Choudhry, 2018. "Letters designed with behavioural science increase influenza vaccination in Medicare beneficiaries," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 743-749, October.
    19. Hershey, John C. & Asch, David A. & Thumasathit, Thi & Meszaros, Jacqueline & Waters, Victor V., 1994. "The Roles of Altruism, Free Riding, and Bandwagoning in Vaccination Decisions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 177-187, August.
    20. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1082-1095, October.
    21. Daisuke Moriwaki & Soichiro Harada & Jiyan Schneider & Takahiro Hoshino, 2020. "Nudging Preventive Behaviors in COVID-19 Crisis: A Large Scale RCT using Smartphone Advertising," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2020-021, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    22. José A. Pellerano & Michael K. Price & Steven L. Puller & Gonzalo E. Sánchez, 2017. "Do Extrinsic Incentives Undermine Social Norms? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Energy Conservation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(3), pages 413-428, July.
    23. Margaret E. Brehm & Paul A. Brehm & Martin Saavedra, 2022. "The Ohio Vaccine Lottery and Starting Vaccination Rates," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(3), pages 387-411.
    24. Jussipekka Salo & Milla Hägg & Mika Kortelainen & Tuija Leino & Tanja Saxell & Markku Siikanen & Lauri Sääksvuori, 2022. "The indirect effect of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination on healthcare workers’ unvaccinated household members," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    25. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    26. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Social norms and energy conservation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1082-1095.
    27. Müller, Stephan & Rau, Holger A., 2021. "Economic preferences and compliance in the social stress test of the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    28. Jen Shang & Rachel Croson, 2009. "A Field Experiment in Charitable Contribution: The Impact of Social Information on the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(540), pages 1422-1439, October.
    29. Brito, Dagobert L. & Sheshinski, Eytan & Intriligator, Michael D., 1991. "Externalities and compulsary vaccinations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 69-90, June.
    30. Alex Moehring & Avinash Collis & Kiran Garimella & M. Amin Rahimian & Sinan Aral & Dean Eckles, 2023. "Providing normative information increases intentions to accept a COVID-19 vaccine," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    31. Hengchen Dai & Silvia Saccardo & Maria A. Han & Lily Roh & Naveen Raja & Sitaram Vangala & Hardikkumar Modi & Shital Pandya & Michael Sloyan & Daniel M. Croymans, 2021. "Behavioural nudges increase COVID-19 vaccinations," Nature, Nature, vol. 597(7876), pages 404-409, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sasaki, Shusaku & Saito, Tomoya & Ohtake, Fumio, 2022. "Nudges for COVID-19 voluntary vaccination: How to explain peer information?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    2. C. Yiwei Zhang & Jeffrey Hemmeter & Judd B. Kessler & Robert D. Metcalfe & Robert Weathers, 2023. "Nudging Timely Wage Reporting: Field Experimental Evidence from the U.S. Supplemental Security Income Program," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1341-1353, March.
    3. Andor, Mark A. & Gerster, Andreas & Peters, Jörg & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2020. "Social Norms and Energy Conservation Beyond the US," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Linek, Maximilian & Traxler, Christian, 2021. "Framing and social information nudges at Wikipedia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1269-1279.
    5. 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).
    6. Brade, Raphael, 2022. "Social Information and Educational Investment - Nudging Remedial Math Course Participation," MPRA Paper 113076, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Shusaku Sasaki & Tomoya Saito & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "The Resilience of FDI to Natural Disasters through Industrial Linkages," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 21-07, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    8. Eugen Dimant & Tobias Gesche, 2021. "Nudging Enforcers: How Norm Perceptions and Motives for Lying Shape Sanctions," CESifo Working Paper Series 9385, CESifo.
    9. Diekert, Florian & Eymess, Tillmann, 2024. "Changing collective action: Nudges and team decisions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 388-406.
    10. Neckermann, Susanne & Turmunkh, Uyanga & van Dolder, Dennie & Wang, Tong V., 2022. "Nudging student participation in online evaluations of teaching: Evidence from a field experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    11. Lucas Coffman & Clayton R. Featherstone & Judd B. Kessler, 2024. "A Model of Information Nudges," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1077, Boston College Department of Economics.
    12. Chlond, Bettina & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Werthschulte, Madeline, 2024. "Transporting behavioral insights to low-income household: A field experiment on energy efficiency investmen," ZEW Discussion Papers 24-079, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Rob Bauer & Inka Eberhardt & Paul Smeets, 2022. "A Fistful of Dollars: Financial Incentives, Peer Information, and Retirement Savings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(6), pages 2981-3020.
    14. Moti Michaeli & Daniel Spiro, 2018. "Prescriptive Norms and Social Comparisons," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Chen, Jingnan (Cecilia) & Fonseca, Miguel A. & Grimshaw, Shaun B., 2021. "When a nudge is (not) enough: Experiments on social information and incentives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    16. Chlond, Bettina & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Werthschulte, Madeline, 2024. "Transporting behavioral insights to low-income households: A field experiment on energy efficiency investments," Working Papers 0755, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    17. Riehm, Tobias & Fugger, Nicolas & Gillen, Philippe & Gretschko, Vitali & Werner, Peter, 2022. "Social norms, sanctions, and conditional entry in markets with externalities: Evidence from an artefactual field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    18. Beshears, John & Kosowsky, Harry, 2020. "Nudging: Progress to date and future directions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(S), pages 3-19.
    19. Fumio Ohtake, 2022. "Can nudges save lives?," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 245-268, April.
    20. Fanghella, Valeria & Ibanez, Lisette & Thøgersen, John, 2025. "What you don't know, can't hurt you: Avoiding donation requests for environmental causes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:113:y:2024:i:c:s221480432400137x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.