Can a Supranational Medicines Agency Restore Trust After Vaccine Suspensions? The Case of Vaxzevria

Andrea Albanese, Francesco Fallucchi and Bertrand Verheyden

No 14553, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Over the first half of March 2021, the majority of European governments suspended Astrazeneca's Vaxzevria vaccine as a precaution following media reports of rare blood clots. We analyse the impact of the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) March 18th statement assuring the public of the safety of Vaxzevria and the immediate reinstatement of the vaccine by most countries on respondents' intention to get vaccinated. By relying on survey data collected in Luxembourg and neighbouring areas between early March and mid-April, we observe that the willingness to be vaccinated was severely declining in the days preceding the EMA statement. We implement a regression discontinuity design exploiting the time at which respondents completed the survey and find that the vaccine reinstatement substantially restored vaccination intentions.

Keywords: supranational regulation; vaccine hesitancy; COVID-19; public health; regression discontinuity design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 H12 H40 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-ore and nep-reg
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Published - published in: PLoS ONE, 2022, 17 (11), e02777554

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