Initiatives Based on the Psychology of Scarcity Can Increase Covid-19 Vaccinations
Alessandro Del Ponte, Audrey De Dominicis, and Paolo Canofari

TL;DR
This study shows that organizing limited-time, limited-quantity vaccine release events in Italy significantly increased COVID-19 vaccination rates, suggesting such strategies can effectively boost public health efforts.
Contribution
The paper provides empirical evidence that scarcity-based vaccination initiatives, inspired by psychology, can enhance vaccine uptake during a pandemic.
Findings
Open-day events increased vaccination doses by 0.39-0.44 percentage points.
Average increase of 10,455-11,796 total doses administered.
Open days led to a 0.30-0.33 percentage point rise in first doses.
Abstract
Background: Here we investigate whether releasing COVID-19 vaccines in limited quantities and at limited times boosted Italy's vaccination campaign in 2021. This strategy exploits insights from psychology and consumer marketing. Methods: We built an original dataset covering 200 days of vaccination data in Italy, including 'open day' events. Open-day events (in short: open days) are instances where COVID-19 vaccines were released in limited quantities and only for a specific day at a specified location (usually, a large pavilion or a public building). Our dependent variables are the number of total and first doses administered in proportion to the eligible population. Our key independent variable is the presence of open-day events in a given region on a specific day. We analyzed the data using regression with fixed effects for time and region. The analysis was robust to alternative…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · COVID-19 epidemiological studies
