Parents’ willingness to pay for a COVID-19 vaccine for themselves and their children in the United States

Figures & data

Table 1. Variable definitions and descriptive statistics (N = 584)

Variable	Definition	n (%)	Mean
Male	1 if respondent is male, 0 = otherwise	256 (44%)
African-American or Black	1 if respondent is African-American or Black, 0 = otherwise	124 (21%)
Education	1 if respondent is a college graduate, 0 = otherwise	376 (64%)
Income	Annual Family income:
	1 if <$20,000	77 (13%)
	2 if between $20,000–$39,999	103 (18%)
	3 if between $40,000–$59,999	79 (14%)
	4 if between $60,000–$79,999	73 (13%)
	5 if between $80,000–$99,999	73 (13%)
	6 if more than $100,000	179 (31%)
Health Status of Parents	The respondent’s perceived health status:
	1 if poor	9 (2%)
	2 if fair	39 (7%)
	3 if good	172 (29%)
	4 if very good	205 (35%)
	5 if excellent	159 (27%)
Health Status of Children	The respondent’s perceived health status of his/her child(ren):
	1 if poor	4 (1%)
	2 if fair	16 (3%)
	3 if good	81 (14%)
	4 if very good	196 (34%)
	5 if excellent	282 (48%)
Number of Children	The number of children the respondent has who are younger than 18 years of age		1.127
Covid-19 Knowledge	The sum of correct answers to the questions about the following sections (maximum of 20 points).
Symptoms of Covid-19	Symptoms of Covid-19 (maximum of 11 points)		6.964
Impact of Covid-19	Comparison of health impact of Covid-19 on children and adults (maximum of 1 point)		0.567
Measures Taken	Measures to prevent spread of Covid-19 (maximum of 8 points)		6.702
Perceived Risk
Complications	“Complications of Covid-19 are serious.” 1 if respondent answered “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”, 0 = otherwise	488 (84%)
Afraid	“I am afraid of my child getting symptoms of Covid-19.” 1 if respondent answered “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”; 0 = otherwise	405 (69%)
Threat	“Covid-19 is a serious public threat.” 1 if respondent answered “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”; 0 = otherwise	477 (82%)
Worried	“I am worried about the likelihood of my child getting Covid-19.” 1 if respondent answered “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”; 0 = otherwise	437 (75%)
Prevention	“A vaccine is important for disease prevention.” 1 if respondent answered “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”; 0 otherwise	418 (72%)
Positive Covid-19 test-parents	1 if respondent got tested positive for Covid-19; 0 = otherwise	27 (5%)
Positive Covid-19 test-children	1 if any of the children got tested positive for Covid-19; 0 = otherwise	24 (4%)

Table 2. Variables associated with willingness to pay (WTP as natural log form) for Covid-19 vaccine from linear regression models

	Model-1		Model-2
	β	Standard Error	β	Standard Error
Male (Male = 1, Female = 0)	0.0635	0.1124	0.1945*	0.1147
African-American or Black (African-American or Black = 1, Others = 0)	0.1655	0.1367	0.2432*	0.1394
Education (Graduated from college = 1, Others = 0)	0.1503	0.1614	0.0504	0.1545
Income (1–6)	0.1004***	0.0386	0.0891**	0.0386
Covid-19 knowledge (out of maximum score of 20)	0.0052	0.0112	0.0269**	0.0124
Complications (Somewhat agree or Strongly agree = 1; Others = 0)	0.5051**	0.2217	0.5502**	0.2322
Threat (Somewhat agree or Strongly agree = 1; Others = 0)	0.6738***	0.2415	0.694***	0.2557
Prevention (Somewhat agree or Strongly agree = 1; Others = 0)	0.5101***	0.1783	0.3127*	0.1788
Positive Covid-19 test-parents (Tested positive for Covid-19 = 1; Others = 0)	0.1817	0.2084
Health status of parents (1–5)	0.1281**	0.0584
Health status of children (1–5)			0.0707	0.0663
Number of children			0.0855*	0.0486
Afraid (Somewhat agree or Strongly agree = 1; Others = 0)			0.1113	0.1427
Worried (Somewhat agree or Strongly agree = 1; Others = 0)			0.175	0.1769
Positive Covid-19 test-children (Tested positive for Covid-19 = 1; Others = 0)			0.2494	0.2504
Youngest child (WTP for a Covid-19 vaccine for youngest child = 1; Others = 0)			0.0196	0.1057
Intercept (constant)	3.5697***	0.348	3.3234***	0.4411
N	314		358
F value, (Prob>F)	3.904***		2.965***
R^2	0.11		0.11

* Significant at 90% level, **Significant at 95% level, ***Significant at 99% level.

Table 3. Parametric and non-parametric estimates of the mean and median WTP for Covid-19 vaccines

	Covid-19 Vaccine for Parents	Covid-19 Vaccine for Children
Linear Regression
Mean	US$260 (US$229.41–US$290.59)	US$287.01 (US$252.78–US$321.23)
Interval Regression
Non-parametric
Mean	US$233.20	US$259.51
Median	US$225	US$348
Parametric
Mean	US$246.15 (US$228.14–US$261.83)	US$260.05 (US$242.94–US$276.17)
Median	US$295.61(US$241.12–US$377.03)	US$357.89 (US$280.43–US$479.87)

Values in parentheses are lower and upper bounds. Parametric estimates are based on log-normal distribution and Krinsky and Robb method.

Non-parametric values represent lower bounds and are based on Spearman-Karber estimator.

Figure 1. Parental demand curve for a hypothetical COVID-19 vaccine

Data availability material

The datasets and other study materials are available upon request.