New development: Increasing vaccination uptake in repeated Covid 19 vaccination mandates

IMPACT

Some countries are still struggling to vaccinate residents against Covid 19 despite the wide availability of vaccines. This situation becomes more complex when considering the possible need for regular booster shots. Repeated vaccine mandates that impose fines on vaccine refusers may increase vaccination uptake. However, the uptake may not be sufficient to lift all Covid 19 restrictions. This article recommends that policy-makers consider an alternative financial incentive system that relies on rewards in addition to fines. Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that a combination can yield a stronger response than using rewards or fines alone.

ABSTRACT

Several countries imposed Covid 19 vaccination mandates and penalized non-compliance by issuing a fine. A novel tit-for-tat (TFT) mechanism is proposed in this article, which uses rewards and fines to increase vaccination rates in repeated mandates. Compared to restricting options to punishment and no punishment, the addition of a reward option can further increase vaccination uptake by fulfilling the criteria of a decoy option.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid 19
• mandate
• reward
• tit-for-tat
• vaccinations

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Heiko Karle and Michael Kobbe for valuable discussions on the conceptual idea.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).