Trust me; I know what I am doing investigating the effect of choice list elicitation and domain-relevant training on preference reversals in decision making for others

Jumping the Queue:Willingness to Pay for Faster Access to COVID-19 Vaccines in Seven European Countries

INTRODUCTION

Given the initial shortage of vaccines to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many countries set up priority lists, implying that large parts of the population had to wait. We therefore elicited the willingness to pay (WTP) for access to two hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines.

METHODS

Respondents were asked how much they would be willing to pay to get an immediate COVID-19 vaccination rather than waiting for one through the public system. We report data collected in January/February 2021 from the European COVID Survey (ECOS) comprising representative samples of the population in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the UK (N = 7068).

RESULTS

In total, 73% (68.5%) of respondents were willing to pay for immediate access to a 100% (60%) effective vaccine, ranging from 66.4% (59.4%) in the Netherlands to 83.3% (81.1%) in Portugal. We found a mean WTP of 54.36 euros (median 37 euros) for immediate access to the 100% effective COVID-19 vaccine and 43.83 euros (median 31 euros) for the 60% effective vaccine. The vaccines' effectiveness, respondents' age, country of residence, income, health state and well-being were significant determinants of WTP. Willingness to be vaccinated (WTV) was also strongly associated with WTP, with lower WTV being associated with lower WTP. A higher perceived risk of infection, higher health risk, more trust in the safety of vaccines, and higher expected waiting time for the free vaccination were all associated with a higher WTP.

CONCLUSION

We find that most respondents would have been willing to pay for faster access to COVID vaccines (jumping the queue), suggesting welfare gains from quicker access to these vaccines. This is an important result in light of potential future outbreaks and vaccines.

Value of statistical life year in extreme poverty: a randomized experiment of measurement methods in rural Burkina Faso

BACKGROUND

Value of a Statistical Life Year (VSLY) provides an important economic measure of an individual's trade-off between health risks and other consumption, and is a widely used policy parameter. Measuring VSLY is complex though, especially in low-income and low-literacy communities.

METHODS

Using a large randomized experiment (N = 3027), we study methodological aspects of stated-preference elicitation with payment cards (price lists) in an extreme poverty context. In a 2 × 2 design, we systematically vary whether buying or selling prices are measured, crossed with the range of the payment card.

RESULTS

We find substantial effects of both the pricing method and the list range on elicited VSLY. Estimates of the gross domestic product per capita multiplier for VSLY range from 3.5 to 33.5 depending on the study design. Importantly, all estimates are economically and statistically significantly larger than the current World Health Organization threshold of 3.0 for cost-effectiveness analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results inform design choice in VSLY measurements, and provide insight into the potential variability of these measurements and possibly robustness checks.