When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-up

Corrado Giulietti, Michael Vlassopoulos and Yves Zenou

No 15462, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate whether COVID-19 deaths that occurred before vaccination rollouts impact subsequent vaccination take-up. We use data on local vaccination rates and COVID-19-related deaths from England measured at high geographic granularity. We find that vaccination take-up as of November 2021 is 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 is negatively associated with vaccination rates, and localities with a larger share of ethnic minorities increase their vaccination rates if they are exposed to more COVID-related-deaths. Further evidence on vaccination intention at the individual level from a representative sample corroborates these patterns. Overall, our evidence suggests that social proximity to victims of the disease triggers a desire to take protective measures against it.

Keywords: vaccination hesitancy; COVID-19; social interactions; information; behavior change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: European Economic Review, 2023, 156, 104463

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Related works:
Journal Article: When reality bites: Local deaths and vaccine take-up (2023)
Working Paper: When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up (2021)
Working Paper: When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up (2021)
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