 Short on shots: Are calls for cooperative restraint effective in managing a flu vaccines shortage?Alain de Janvry (), Elisabeth Sadoulet () and Sofia Villas-Boas Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2010, vol. 76, issue 2, 209-224 Abstract: We conducted a randomized experiment at the time of the 2004 flu vaccine shortage, providing information about the sharply reduced number of clinics and their schedule, and an appeal on cooperative restraint to a campus population. This strategy was intended to reduce demand for vaccination among non-priority individuals and to free available supplies for the priority population. It failed to achieve its purpose. Information induced a net increase in vaccines distributed and, perversely, the net increase originated entirely in non-priority individuals. The surprising finding is that calls on cooperative restraint induced an uncalled for positive response among priority individuals, while they induced an increase in cheating among non-priority individuals. Age as a qualifying factor was in particular widely abused, with the number of "65 years old" more than twice the predicted value, while about half of the predicted 61-64 years old were missing. Keywords: Randomized; experiment; Shortage; Cooperative; restraint; Cheating (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:76:y:2010:i:2:p:209-224 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D. More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier |
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