IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/16791.html

When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up

Author

Listed:
  • Zenou, Yves
  • Giulietti, Corrado
  • Vlassopoulos, Michael

Abstract

In this study, we investigate whether COVID-19 deaths that occurred before vaccination rollouts impact subsequent vaccination take-ups. We used data on local vaccination rates and COVID-19-related deaths from England measured at high geographic granularity. We found that vaccination take-up as of November 2021 was positively associated with pre-vaccine COVID-19-related deaths, controlling for demographic, economic, and health-related characteristics of the localities, while including geographic fixed effects. In addition, the share of ethnic minorities in a locality was negatively associated with vaccination rates, and that localities with a larger share of ethnic minorities increased their vaccination rates if they get exposed to more COVID-related-deaths. Further evidence on vaccination intention at the individual level from a representative sample corroborated these patterns. Overall, our evidence suggests that social proximity to victims of the disease triggers a desire to take protective measures against it.

Suggested Citation

  • Zenou, Yves & Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2021. "When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up," CEPR Discussion Papers 16791, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16791
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP16791
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Islam, Asad & Kusnadi, Gita & Rezki, Jahen & Sim, Armand & van Empel, Giovanni & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Addressing vaccine hesitancy using local ambassadors: A randomized controlled trial in Indonesia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    3. Thuilliez, Josselin & Touré, Nouhoum, 2024. "Opinions and vaccination during an epidemic," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Epstein, Gil S. & Heizler, Odelia & Israeli, Osnat, 2025. "Herding and the intention to vaccinate against COVID-19," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1578, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Josselin Thuilliez & Nouhoum Touré, 2024. "Opinions and vaccination during an epidemic," Post-Print hal-04490900, HAL.
    6. Deiana, Claudio & Geraci, Andrea & Mastrobuoni, Giovanni & Weidenholzer, Simon, 2025. "Running the risk: Immunity and mobility in response to a pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    7. Bonsang, Eric & Pronkina, Elizaveta, 2023. "Family size and vaccination among older individuals: The case of COVID-19 vaccine," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    8. Laliotis, Ioannis & Mourelatos, Evangelos & Lohtander, Joona, 2025. "Religiosity, attitudes toward science, and public health: Evidence from Finland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    9. Pronkina, Elizaveta & Rees, Daniel I., 2022. "Predicting COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake," IZA Discussion Papers 15625, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Epstein, Gil S. & Heizler, Odelia & Israeli, Osnat, 2025. "Herd behavior and the intention to vaccinate against COVID-19," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Josselin Thuilliez & Nouhoum Touré, 2024. "Opinions and vaccination during an epidemic," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-04490900, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cpr:ceprdp:16791. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.