Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16694
Authors: Manuel Bagues; Velichka Dimitrova
Abstract: We quantify the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on psychological well-being using information from a large-scale panel survey representative of the UK population. Exploiting exogenous variation in the timing of vaccinations, we find that vaccination increases psychological well-being by 0.12 standard deviation, compensating for around one half of the overall decrease caused by the pandemic. This effect persists for at least two months, and it is associated with a decrease in the perceived likelihood of contracting COVID-19 and higher engagement in social activities. The improvement is 1.5 times larger for mentally distressed individuals, supporting the prioritization of this group in vaccination roll-outs.
Keywords: psychological wellbeing; COVID-19 vaccination
JEL Codes: I18; I31
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Vaccination (I19) | Psychological Wellbeing (I31) |
| Vaccination (I19) | Likelihood of being mentally distressed (I31) |
| Vaccination (I19) | Perceived likelihood of contracting COVID-19 (D80) |
| Vaccination (I19) | Social engagement (D16) |
| Vaccination (for individuals with prior concerns about side effects) (I19) | Psychological Wellbeing (I31) |