Open AccessIncentives can spur COVID-19 vaccination uptake
Author(s) -
Heike Klüver,
Felix Hartmann,
Macartan Humphreys,
Ferdinand Geißler,
Johannes Giesecke
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2109543118
Subject(s) - vaccination , remuneration , covid-19 , incentive , medicine , demography , business , immunology , virology , economics , finance , sociology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , outbreak , microeconomics
Recent evidence suggests that vaccination hesitancy is too high in many countries to sustainably contain COVID-19. Using a factorial survey experiment administered to 20,500 online respondents in Germany, we assess the effectiveness of three strategies to increase vaccine uptake, namely, providing freedoms, financial remuneration, and vaccination at local doctors. Our results suggest that all three strategies can increase vaccination uptake on the order of two to three percentage points (PP) overall and five PP among the undecided. The combined effects could be as high as 13 PP for this group. The returns from different strategies vary across age groups, however, with older cohorts more responsive to local access and younger cohorts most responsive to enhanced freedoms for vaccinated citizens.