COVID-19 Vaccination: The Role of Crisis Experience

We propose that crisis experience influences preferences towards COVID-19 vaccination and the speed of vaccination during the initial phase when vaccines became available. We use macro and micro data to empirically investigate our theory and introduce a novel crisis experience index. Evidence based on macro data shows that a one-standard-deviation increase in our new crisis experience index gives rise to around 10 additional administered vaccine doses per 100 citizens (around one standard deviation). Our micro-level analysis provides evidence for a microfoundation of the macro-level results, indicating that the crisis history of countries is positively correlated with preferences towards COVID-19 vaccination. Disentangling socialization effects and experience effects, we find that citizens who have experienced crises during their impressionable years (ages 18–25) have stronger preferences for being vaccinated against COVID-19 than others.