When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up

Corrado Giulietti, Michael Vlassopoulos and Yves Zenou

No 999, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: In this study, 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)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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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 (2022)
Working Paper: When Reality Bites: Local Deaths and Vaccine Take-Up (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:999

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