Bagues, Manuel;
Dimitrova, Velichka;
(2025)
The psychological gains from COVID-19 vaccination.
Journal of Public Economics
, 242
, Article 105304. 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105304.
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Abstract
We estimate 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 (GHQ-12) by 0.12 standard deviations, compensating for one-half of the deterioration in mental health caused by the pandemic. This improvement persists for at least two months, and is linked to higher engagement in social activities and a decrease in the self-reported likelihood of contracting COVID-19. The main beneficiaries are individuals who became mentally distressed during the pandemic, supporting their prioritization in vaccination roll-outs. Conversely, individuals who harbored concerns about potential vaccine side effects show no improvement in psychological well-being upon vaccination, underscoring the importance of public confidence in vaccine safety and efficacy. Accounting for the improvement in psychological well-being increases the benefits of vaccination by around 50%.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The psychological gains from COVID-19 vaccination |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105304 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105304 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Psychological well-being, COVID-19 vaccination, Instrumental variables and regression, discontinuity design |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute > IOE - Social Science Research Unit |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10215280 |
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