Do Neighborhoods Matter for Individual Decision-Making? The Case of COVID-19 Vaccination in Sweden

Abstract

Much research has highlighted the significance of neighborhood effects on individual-level choices and outcomes. But it has proven difficult to disentangle the influence of those that an individual shares a residential space with from that of other peers, such as work colleagues and family members. Neighbors, work colleagues, and family members constitute different sources of information. The decision to accept or refuse a vaccine is intensely personal and involves the processing of information about phenomena likely to be unfamiliar to most individuals. To examine the information effect of different peer groups we use microlevel data on COVID-19 vaccination in Sweden. We investigate the extent to which an individual's decision not to get vaccinated is influenced by the presence of other unvaccinated individuals in their household, workplace, or residential neighborhood. Our findings reveal that workplace peers tend to be most strongly connected to the decision not to get vaccinated. We also find that the role of neighborhood peers tends to be overestimated when we do not control for peers at home and at work.