Why Low Adult Immunization? An inquiry into the case of Hepatitis B Vaccine in the Peri-Urban Areas of Kathmandu Valley

Nirmal Raut and Devendra Prasad Shrestha

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: We attempt to analyze the reasons to low adult immunization from the willingness to pay perspective in the peri-urban setting of Kathmandu Valley where some private health facilities had organized Hepatitis B Vaccine Health camps in the recent past. We reason the existence of regulated Hepatitis B Vaccine market in Nepal and thereby utilize an open ended question to assess the willingness to pay of an unimmunized adult. We justify the application of the two-part model in the study and further show that the socio-economic and demographic variables do not play significant role in explaining the low adult immunization except for age and employment. The result further reveals that people do not care to pay more for vaccination at present unless they apprehend the risk of suffering from disease with the disease specific symptoms or some history of chronic diseases. We argue that people exhibit time inconsistent - present biased preferences in immunization practices. The small preventive costs incurred to them on immunization today appear very large relative to the economic benefits realized tomorrow. There still exists asymmetric information so far as understanding the importance of the vaccine and its right/proper usage are concerned; a strong case of informing people to perceive vaccination as a preventive lifesaving shot thus becomes essential.

Keywords: Hepatitis B Vaccine; Adult Immunization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I15 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09, Revised 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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