IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/ijhcfe/v23y2023i4d10.1007_s10754-023-09343-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children, vaccines, and financial incentives

Author

Listed:
  • Orhan Erdem

    (Rockford University)

  • Sukran Erdem

    (University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford)

  • Kelly Monson

    (Rockford University)

Abstract

Recent studies have been analyzing and measuring the efficacy of the use of financial incentives to increase the Covid-19 vaccine uptake. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the only study available in the literature that aims to measure the effect of financial incentives on vaccine rates among children. This paper explores the effects of a specific financial incentive on parents’ vaccination decisions for their children. Using data from a regional practice, where students aged 12 and older received $50 gift cards per Covid-19 vaccination dose, we use various methodologies (synthetic control, linear regression, and difference-in-differences) to approximate the effects of financial incentives on vaccine rates. Our analysis reveals that gift cards increase vaccination rates by 2.64–4.23 percentage points from a baseline rate of 38 percent, concluding that financial incentives, in conjunction with other incentives and policies, can be considered to increase the rate of vaccines for 12- to 17-year-olds.

Suggested Citation

  • Orhan Erdem & Sukran Erdem & Kelly Monson, 2023. "Children, vaccines, and financial incentives," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 537-552, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:ijhcfe:v:23:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s10754-023-09343-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10754-023-09343-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10754-023-09343-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10754-023-09343-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    2. Margaret E. Brehm & Paul A. Brehm & Martin Saavedra, 2022. "The Ohio Vaccine Lottery and Starting Vaccination Rates," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(3), pages 387-411.
    3. Carlos E. Carpio & Ioana A. Coman & Oscar Sarasty & Manuel García, 2021. "COVID-19 Vaccine Demand and Financial Incentives," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 871-883, November.
    4. Hammermann, Andrea & Mohnen, Alwine, 2014. "The pric(z)e of hard work," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Harsha Thirumurthy & Katherine L Milkman & Kevin G Volpp & Alison M Buttenheim & Devin G Pope, 2022. "Association between statewide financial incentive programs and COVID-19 vaccination rates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-7, March.
    6. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    7. Carpenter, Jeffrey & Dolifka, David, 2017. "Exploitation aversion: When financial incentives fail to motivate agents," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 213-224.
    8. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    9. Barber, Andrew & West, Jeremy, 2022. "Conditional cash lotteries increase COVID-19 vaccination rates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Alberto Abadie & Alexis Diamond & Jens Hainmueller, 2015. "Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(2), pages 495-510, February.
    11. Dragan Tevdovski & Petar Jolakoski & Viktor Stojkoski, 2022. "The impact of state capacity on the cross-country variations in COVID-19 vaccination rates," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 237-255, September.
    12. Robertson, Christopher & Schaefer, K. Aleks & Scheitrum, Daniel, 2021. "Are vaccine lotteries worth the money?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bruno Ferman & Cristine Pinto & Vitor Possebom, 2020. "Cherry Picking with Synthetic Controls," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 510-532, March.
    2. Manuel Funke & Moritz Schularick & Christoph Trebesch, 2023. "Populist Leaders and the Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(12), pages 3249-3288, December.
    3. Samer Matta & Michael Bleaney & Simon Appleton, 2022. "The economic impact of political instability and mass civil protest," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 253-270, March.
    4. Michael Funke & Kadri Männasoo & Helery Tasane, 2023. "Regional Economic Impacts of the Øresund Cross-Border Fixed Link: Cui Bono?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10557, CESifo.
    5. Flamini, Alessandro & Jahanshahi, Babak & Mohaddes, Kamiar, 2021. "Illegal drugs and public corruption: Crack based evidence from California," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Nauro Campos & Fabrizio Coricelli & Luigi Moretti,, 2020. "Choosing Institutional over Economic Integration: Are There Growth Effects?," Working Papers hal-03028143, HAL.
    7. Stefano, Roberta di & Mellace, Giovanni, 2020. "The inclusive synthetic control method," Discussion Papers on Economics 14/2020, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    8. Tomasz Serwach, 2022. "The European Union and within-country income inequalities. The case of the New Member States," Working Papers hal-03548416, HAL.
    9. Gabriel, Ricardo Duque & Pessoa, Ana Sofia, 2020. "Adopting the Euro: a synthetic control approach," MPRA Paper 99391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Joseph Mawejje & Patrick McSharry, 2021. "The economic cost of conflict: Evidence from South Sudan," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 1969-1990, November.
    11. Roy Cerqueti & Raffaella Coppier & Alessandro Girardi & Marco Ventura, 2022. "The sooner the better: lives saved by the lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak. The case of Italy [Using synthetic controls: Feasibility, data requirements, and methodological aspects]," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 25(1), pages 46-70.
    12. Bruno Ferman, 2021. "On the Properties of the Synthetic Control Estimator with Many Periods and Many Controls," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 116(536), pages 1764-1772, October.
    13. Irene Botosaru & Bruno Ferman, 2019. "On the role of covariates in the synthetic control method," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 22(2), pages 117-130.
    14. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui & Fumio Ohtake, 2023. "Would Monetary Incentives to COVID-19 vaccination reduce motivation?," Papers 2311.11828, arXiv.org.
    15. Wang, Xueyang & Sun, Xiumei & Ahmad, Mahmood & Zhang, Haotian, 2023. "Does low carbon energy transition impede air pollution? Evidence from China's coal-to-gas policy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    16. Martin Becker & Stefan Klößner & Gregor Pfeifer, 2018. "Cross-Validating Synthetic Controls," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(1), pages 603-609.
    17. Corinne Autant-Bernard & Ruben Fotso & Nadine Massard, 2022. "Evaluating the impact of public policies on large firms: a synthetic control approach to science-industry transfer policies," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(4), pages 9-50.
    18. Essers, Dennis & Ide, Stefaan, 2019. "The IMF and precautionary lending: An empirical evaluation of the selectivity and effectiveness of the Flexible Credit Line," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 25-61.
    19. Parast Layla & Hunt Priscillia & Griffin Beth Ann & Powell David, 2020. "When is a Match Sufficient? A Score-based Balance Metric for the Synthetic Control Method," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 209-228, January.
    20. Roland Zink & Javier Valdes & Jane Wuth, 2020. "Prioritizing the Chicken or Egg? Electric Vehicle Purchase and Charging Infrastructure Subsidies in Germany," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 185-198.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; Vaccine; Public health; Financial incentives; Synthetic control; K-12; Children;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:ijhcfe:v:23:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s10754-023-09343-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.