Willingness-to-pay tuition and risk-taking proclivities among public health students

Abstract

Objective: To quantify students’ risk tolerance for in-person classes and willingness-to-pay for online-only instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants: 46 Columbia University public health graduate students. Methods: We developed a survey tool with a “standard gamble” exercise administered online by an interactive chat bot with full anonymity by students. Students were asked to trade between the risk of infection with COVID-19 and: (1) attending classes in-person, and (2) attending community parties. We also assessed willingness-to-pay for online-only tuition. Results: Students accepted a 23% (standard error [SE]: 4%) risk of infection to attend classes in-person and 15% of them expressed willingness to attend community parties even if the COVID-19 prevalence were high. Students were willing-to-pay only 48% (SE: 3%) of the regular, in-person tuition fees for online instruction. Conclusions: Public health students with a strong knowledge of COVID-19 transmission were willing to accept a significant risk of infection for in-person instruction.

Trial registration:

NA.

Keywords:

• Covid-19 pandemic
• risk tolerance
• university re-opening
• willingness to pay online tuition

Author’s contributions

PAM, KK, LG, and ZZ developed the idea; PAM and ZZ provided technical support; LG and PM provided administrative support; ZZ helped with visualization; All authors contributed to writing.

Conflict of interest disclosure

Authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Columbia University.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by an internal fund from Columbia University School of Medicine.