Economics Seminar - "The Effects of Perceived Disease Risk and Access Costs on Infant Immunization"

This paper examines the roles of perceived disease risk and healthcare access costs in influencing parental decisions about infant immunization. Using information on the exact timing of vaccination relative to birth, we estimate the effects of local pertussis outbreaks occurring inutero and during the first two months of life on the likelihood of on-time initial immunization for pertussis and other diseases. We find that parents of infants respond to changes in perceived disease risk: pertussis outbreaks within a state increase the rate of on-time receipt of the pertussis vaccine at two months of age. This response is larger for children most likely to delay immunization for economic reasons. In addition, we find that parents also increase the likelihood of immunizing their children against other vaccine-preventable diseases. These spillover effects are similar in magnitude to the direct effects, which suggests that access costs play a significant role in parents’ vaccination decisions.