WHO approves? Relative trust, the WHO, and China’s COVID-19 vaccines

Greg Chih-Hsin Sheen, Hans H. Tung, Chien-Huei Wu and Wen-Chin Wu ()
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Greg Chih-Hsin Sheen: National Cheng Kung University
Hans H. Tung: National Taiwan University
Chien-Huei Wu: Academia Sinica
Wen-Chin Wu: Academia Sinica

The Review of International Organizations, 2023, vol. 18, issue 3, No 3, 499-521

Abstract: Abstract This paper aims to answer a general question: whether an international organization (IO) is able to shape public opinion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic took hold in early 2020, countries across the globe have switched gear from prevention to vaccination. Most had to not only secure a sufficient supply of vaccines, but also to curb vaccine hesitancy among their populations. Can endorsement by an international organization like the World Health Organization (WHO) enhance a vaccine’s acceptability? Based on a survey experiment conducted in Taiwan, our study leverages the special relationship between China and Taiwan to show that WHO endorsement can induce acceptance of Chinese vaccines among Taiwanese people. However, the effect is found to be contextual in the sense that it only works when people’s trust in the WHO is higher than their trust in the vaccine’s country of origin. Our study not only contributes to the literature of IO legitimacy by empirically showing IOs’ causal effects on public opinion, but also sheds light on how a vaccine’s credibility can be enhanced to promote vaccination uptake.

Keywords: International organization; World Health Organization; Trust; Credibility; Endorsement; COVID-19 vaccines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F50 F53 H57 I18 O19 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11558-022-09481-1

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