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Revised July 17, 2008

Download the Paper (951 K, PDF file) - July 17, 2008 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing.

ABSTRACT:
We conducted a randomized experiment at the time of the 2004 flu vaccine shortage, providing information about the sharply reduced number of clinics and their schedule, and an appeal on cooperative restraint to a campus population. This strategy was intended to reduce demand for vaccination among non-priority individuals and to free available supplies for the priority population. It failed to achieve its purpose. Information induced a net increase in vaccines distributed and, perversely, the net increase originated entirely in non-priority individuals. The surprising finding is that calls on cooperative restraint induced an uncalled for positive response among priority individuals, while they induced an increase in cheating among non-priority individuals. Age as a qualifying factor was in particular widely abused, with the number of “65 years old” more than twice the predicted value, while about half of the predicted 61-64 years old are missing.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Alain de Janvry, Elisabeth Sadoulet, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas, "Short on Shots: Are Calls on Cooperative Restraint Effective in Managing the Scarcity of Flu Vaccines?" (July 17, 2008). Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UCB. CUDARE Working Paper 1013.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/are_ucb/1013