Impact of State Incentives on COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake in the U.S.

Abstract

The effectiveness of the state policies providing incentives for vaccination to curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is hotly contested, and evidence from the literature remains inconclusive. This study presents evidence from a natural experiment on the effects of the U.S. state governments' announced incentives (i.e., cash, lottery/sweepstakes, or other non-financial incentives) for vaccination by twenty-six U.S. states in 2021 to attenuate vaccine hesitancy or reluctance. The research design is an event study assessing the changes in the daily state-level COVID-19 vaccination rates between April 19 and July 18. Any (financial and non-financial) incentives are associated with an increase in the daily COVID-19 vaccination rates by 2.5 and 3.2 percentage points in 7-9 and 10-12 days after the governors announced statewide incentives, but the effects were not statistically significant. Estimates suggest that state daily vaccination rates increased marginally due to the announcement of financial incentives but not for non-financial incentives. Findings of this impact evaluation study of the vaccine incentive program suggest modest but insignificant effects of statewide incentives on COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Note:
Funding Information: None.

Conflict of Interests: None.

Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Evidence-Based Decision Making, State Mandates, State Health Policies, Lottery, Incentives

JEL Classification: I1, I10, I12, I18