Lawler Emily C
Vanderbilt University, Department of Economics, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235, United States.
J Health Econ. 2017 Mar;52:45-62. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.01.002. Epub 2017 Jan 18.
I provide novel evidence on the effectiveness of two vaccination policies - simple non-binding recommendations to vaccinate versus mandates requiring vaccination prior to childcare or kindergarten attendance - in the context of the only disease whose institutional features permit a credible examination of both: hepatitis A. Using provider-verified immunization data I find that recommendations significantly increased hepatitis A vaccination rates among young children by at least 20 percentage points, while mandates increase rates by another 8 percentage points. These policies also significantly reduced population hepatitis A incidence. My results suggest a range of policy options for addressing suboptimally low population vaccination rates.
我提供了关于两种疫苗接种政策有效性的新证据——一种是简单的非强制性接种建议，另一种是要求在儿童入托或上幼儿园前必须接种疫苗——这是在唯一一种其制度特征允许对这两种政策进行可靠检验的疾病背景下进行的：甲型肝炎。利用经提供者核实的免疫数据，我发现接种建议显著提高了幼儿甲型肝炎疫苗接种率，至少提高了20个百分点，而强制接种又使接种率提高了8个百分点。这些政策还显著降低了人群中甲型肝炎的发病率。我的研究结果为解决人群疫苗接种率过低的问题提供了一系列政策选择。
