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THE GREAT COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT: BEHAVIOURAL AND POLICY RESPONSES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

M. Christopher Auld Open the ORCID record for M. Christopher Auld [Opens in a new window]  and
Flavio Toxvaerd
M. Christopher Auld*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Flavio Toxvaerd
Affiliation:
Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. Email: auld@uvic.ca
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Abstract

Using daily data on vaccinations, disease spread and measures of social interaction from Google Mobility reports aggregated at the country level for 112 countries, we present estimates of behavioural responses to the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. We first estimate correlates of the timing and intensity of the vaccination rollout, finding that countries which vaccinated more of their population earlier strongly tended to be richer, whereas measures of the state of pandemic or its death toll up to the time of the initial vaccine rollout had little predictive ability after controlling for income. Estimates of models of social distancing and disease spread suggest that countries which vaccinated more quickly also experienced decreases in some measures of social distancing, yet also lower incidence of disease, and in these countries, policy-makers relaxed social distancing measures relative to countries which rolled out vaccinations more slowly.

Keywords

I12C5economic epidemiologyeconometricsCOVID-19vaccination
Type
Research Article
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 257: ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO INFECTION CONTROL , Summer 2021 , pp. 14 - 35
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of National Institute Economic Review

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