Governments around the world are experimenting with various incentives such as cash and free beer to encourage vaccinations against COVID-19. Adept Economics Director Gene Tunny recently caught up with Melbourne-based economist and regulatory economics expert Isaac Katz about Isaac’s clever proposal to incentivise vaccinations and to overcome vaccine hesitancy. You can read all about Isaac’s plan in his discussion paper Incentives for achieving COVID 19 herd immunity through vaccination.
Key features of Isaac’s plan are:
1. Rewards (incentives) could be in the form of payments to each vaccinated individual, and eligibility to win a significant lottery prize and smaller prizes.
2. The incentives would only be payable if a specified national vaccination rate is met by a specified due date. Incentives would not be paid prior to the due date. This approach creates a focus on the objective – which is to maximise the national vaccination rate. Rewarding individuals for being vaccinated without recognising the national objective will fail to promote community based actions to increase vaccination rates.
Tying the level of incentives to the overall vaccination rate and setting a cut-off date is a clever way of encouraging people to pressure their family and friends to get vaccinated as soon as possible (given the supply constraints).
To listen to the full conversation, and to check out the show notes, head to the link below:
EP100- Incentivizing Vaccinations or Cash for Jabs