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The importance of Social Norms against Strategic Effects: The case of Covid-19 vaccine uptake

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  • Agranov, Marina
  • Elliott, Matt
  • Ortoleva, Pietro

Abstract

We study how individual decisions are affected by those of other members of the society. We use the vaccine against COVID-19 as a case study and empirically estimate the magnitude of three key forces: Herding, Social Norms, and Free-riding. We find that Free-riding is dominated by the other two forces, and that Social Norms are a key driver of behavior. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity and systematic differences between people by demographics and their political preferences.

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  • Agranov, Marina & Elliott, Matt & Ortoleva, Pietro, 2021. "The importance of Social Norms against Strategic Effects: The case of Covid-19 vaccine uptake," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:206:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521002561
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109979
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    Cited by:

    1. Silvia Angerer & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Philipp Lergetporer & Thomas Rittmannsberger, 2022. "Beliefs about Social Norms and (the Polarization of) Covid-19 Vaccination Readiness," CESifo Working Paper Series 10196, CESifo.
    2. Nail Kashaev & Natalia Lazzati & Ruli Xiao, 2023. "Peer Effects in Consideration and Preferences," Papers 2310.12272, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.
    3. Fanny Velardo & Verity Watson & Pierre Arwidson & François Alla & Stéphane Luchini & Michaël Schwarzinger, 2021. "Regional Differences in COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in December 2020: A Natural Experiment in the French Working-Age Population," Post-Print hal-03513452, HAL.
    4. Paolo Buonanno & Sergio Galletta & Marcello Puca, 2023. "The role of civic capital on vaccination," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 993-999, May.
    5. Michele Battisti & Ilpo Kauppinen & Britta Rude, 2022. "Twitter and Crime: The Effect of Social Movements on GenderBased Violence," ifo Working Paper Series 381, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    6. Sheena Moosa & Raheema Abdul Raheem & Aminath Riyaz & Hawwa Shiuna Musthafa & Aishath Zeen Naeem, 2022. "The role of social value orientation in modulating vaccine uptake in the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, December.
    7. Silvia Angerer & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Philipp Lergetporer & Thomas Rittmannsberger, 2023. "Beliefs about social norms and (the polarization of) COVID-19 vaccination readiness," Munich Papers in Political Economy 26, Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich.
    8. Daziano, Ricardo & Budziński, Wiktor, 2023. "Evolution of preferences for COVID-19 vaccine throughout the pandemic – The choice experiment approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    9. Agranov, M. & Elliott, M. & Ortoleva, P., 2024. "I know best: Scepticism about the Knowledge of Experts and Peers on Economics Predictions," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2423, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    10. Angerer, Silvia & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Rittmannsberger, Thomas, 2024. "Beliefs about social norms and gender-based polarization of COVID-19 vaccination readiness," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    11. Serrano-Alarcon, Manuel & Mckee, Martin & wang, Yuxi & Kentikelenis, Alexander & Stuckler, David, 2022. "The far-right and anti-vaccine attitudes: lessons from Spain’s mass COVID-19 vaccine roll-out," OSF Preprints cvq78, Center for Open Science.
    12. Nadav Rakocz & Sindhu Ernala & Israel Nir & Udi Weinsberg & Amit Bahl, 2023. "The heterogeneous effects of social support on the adoption of Facebook’s vaccine profile frames feature," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Moran Bodas & Bruria Adini & Eli Jaffe & Arielle Kaim & Kobi Peleg, 2022. "Lockdown Efficacy in Controlling the Spread of COVID-19 May Be Waning Due to Decline in Public Compliance, Especially among Unvaccinated Individuals: A Cross-Sectional Study in Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-11, April.
    14. Kumar, Viney & Bhattacharyya, Samit, 2023. "Nonlinear effect of sentiments and opinion sharing on vaccination decision in face of an outbreak: A multiplex network approach," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    15. Fangfei Wang & Sifan Zhang & Lei Lei, 2022. "Appealing to Individual Fears or Social Norms: How Can the Public Be Persuaded to Accept COVID-19 Vaccination through Risk Communication?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-13, October.

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