Discussion paper

DP16681 Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Rollouts and Their Effects on Health Outcomes

This paper examines empirically the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and their effects on health outcomes. We assemble a comprehensive and novel cross-country database at a daily frequency on vaccinations and various health outcomes (new COVID-19 cases, fatalities, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions) for the period December 16, 2020–June 20, 2021. Using this data, we find that: (i) early vaccine procurement, domestic production of vaccines, the severity of the pandemic, a country’s health infrastructure, and vaccine acceptance are significant determinants of the speed of vaccination rollouts; (ii) vaccine deployment significantly reduces new COVID-19 infections, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions, and fatalities, and is more effective when coupled with stringent containment measures, or when a country is experiencing a large outbreak; and (iii) COVID-19 cases in neighboring countries can lead to an increase in a country’s domestic caseload, and hamper efforts in taming its own local outbreak.

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Citation

Deb, P, D Furceri, D Jiménez, S Kothari, J Ostry and N Tawk (2021), ‘DP16681 Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Rollouts and Their Effects on Health Outcomes‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 16681. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp16681