"Psychic vs. Economic Barriers to Vaccine Take-up: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria"

Sato, Ryoko and Yoshito Takasaki

July 2015

This paper evaluates the relative importance of psychic costs of vaccination compared to monetary costs through a eld experiment that randomizes several factors aecting tetanus vaccine take-up among women in rural Nigeria. Although conventional wisdom highlights the relevance of psychic costs, we nd no evidence that psychic costs limit vaccine take-up. Of the women who were incentivized just to show up at a clinic unconditional on vaccine take-up, 95.7 percent chose to get vaccinated anyway. Priming about disease severity increases the perceived severity of disease, but not vaccine take-up. Rather than psychic costs, monetary costs are major barriers to vaccination.