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Incentives to Vaccinate

Author

Listed:
  • Pol Campos-Mercade
  • Armando N. Meier
  • Stephan Meier
  • Devin G. Pope
  • Florian H. Schneider
  • Erik Wengström

Abstract

Whether monetary incentives to change behavior work and how they should be structured are fundamental economic questions. We overcome typical data limitations in a large-scale field experiment on vaccination (N = 5,324) with a unique combination of administrative and survey data. We find that guaranteed incentives of $20 increase uptake by 13 percentage points in the short run and 9 in the long run. Guaranteed incentives are more effective than lottery-based, prosocial, or individually-targeted incentives, though all boost vaccinations. There are no unintended consequences on future vaccination or heterogeneities based on vaccination attitudes and incentivized economic preferences. Further, administrative data on relatives shows substantial positive spillovers. Our findings demonstrate the great potential of incentives for improving public health and provide guidance on their design.

Suggested Citation

  • Pol Campos-Mercade & Armando N. Meier & Stephan Meier & Devin G. Pope & Florian H. Schneider & Erik Wengström, 2024. "Incentives to Vaccinate," NBER Working Papers 32899, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32899
    Note: CH EH LS PE
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Ochsner & Lukas Schmid, 2025. "Pandemics' backlash: The effects of the 1918 influenza on health attitudes and behavior," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp796, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    2. Alston, Mackenzie & Owens, Emily, 2025. "Does black and blue matter? An experimental investigation of race, perceptions of police, and legal compliance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    3. Campos-Mercade, Pol & Thiemann, Petra & Wengström, Erik, 2025. "Performance Incentives in Education: The Role of Goal Mismatch," Working Papers 2025:5, Lund University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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