Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267467 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15730
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
What is the role of general practitioners (GPs) in supporting or hindering public health efforts? We investigate the influence of vaccine-skeptic GPs on their patients' decisions to get a COVID-19 vaccination. We identify vaccine-skeptic GPs from the signatories of an open letter in which 199 Austrian physicians expressed their skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines. We examine small rural municipalities where patients choose a GP primarily based on geographic proximity. These vaccine-skeptic GPs reduced the vaccination rate by 5.6 percentage points. This estimate implies that they discouraged 7.9% of the vaccinable population. The effect appears to stem from discouragement rather than from rationing access to the vaccine.
Subjects: 
vaccine hesitancy
vaccination
COVID-19
health policy
JEL: 
I12
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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