Incentivizing COVID-19 Vaccination in a Polarized and Partisan United States.

Abstract

As COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out in early 2011, governments at all levels in the US faced significant difficulty in consistently and efficiently administering injections in the face of vaccination resistance among a public increasingly political polarized on vaccination preferences prior to the beginning of the mass vaccinations. Using an original conjoint experiment fielded to a nationally representative sample prior to the mass proliferation of COVID-19 vaccines, we examine how different incentives (e.g., employer mandates, state-organized or health care provider-organized vaccination clinics, or financial incentives) affect the public's preference to get vaccinated. We also test how financial incentive preferences correlate with self-reported vaccination intention using observational data from the Kaiser Family Foundation June 2021 Health Tracking Poll. We find financial incentives positively influence vaccine preferences among the mass public and all partisan groups, including Republicans initially "unlikely" to be vaccinated. Using the observational data, we replicate our experimental findings showing positive financial incentive attitudes positively correlate with self-reported vaccination disclosures. Our results provide support for direct financial incentives, rather than other incentives, as being a valuable tool for policymakers tasked with alleviating vaccination resistance among a US mass public increasingly polarized along partisan lines.