Pol Campos-Mercade

General seminars
amse seminar

Pol Campos-Mercade

Lund University
Financial incentives and vaccination
Venue

IBD Amphi

Îlot Bernard du Bois - Amphithéâtre

AMU - AMSE
5-9 boulevard Maurice Bourdet
13001 Marseille

Date(s)
Monday, December 18 2023| 11:30am to 12:45pm
Contact(s)

Nicolas Clootens: nicolas.clootens[at]univ-amu.fr
Romain Ferrali: romain.ferrali[at]univ-amu.fr

Abstract

We provide evidence that offering financial incentives for COVID-19 vaccination is an effective and safe policy to increase vaccination uptake. We then study public attitudes towards offering financial incentives, investigating whether public opposition to the use of incentives for health-related behaviors hinders their adoption. To measure and characterize attitudes, we develop an experimental paradigm in which participants decide whether to provide incentives to others to vaccinate. In a representative sample of the Swedish population (N=1,004), we find that a large share of the population dislikes using financial incentives. Although people think incentives are effective, they also view them as coercive and perceive them as unethical. Contrary to concerns raised in the academic literature, people do not believe that incentives erode moral values or that incentives signal danger. Lastly, we document that the aversion to incentives extends beyond vaccination to other healthy behaviors, such as cancer screenings or smoking cessation. Our findings point to public disapproval as a key reason for why incentive policies are rarely used.