American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Real-World Effectiveness of the Influenza Vaccine in Young Children
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
(pp. 210–28)
Abstract
Influenza causes substantial illness among children. RCTs demonstrate that the influenza vaccine reduces active-surveillance-detected influenza but have insufficient samples to examine outcomes such as health care provider visits. This study documents that children whose well-child visits occur when the seasonal influenza vaccine is broadly available are 23.4 pp more likely to be vaccinated than children whose visits do not. Using large administrative health care datasets, we leverage this vaccination-rate variation to show that the vaccine reduces outpatient and ED visits significantly. The results imply that making pediatric influenza vaccinations more convenient could substantially increase vaccination rates and reduce health care expenditures.Citation
Anderson, Michael L., Carlos Dobkin, Devon Gorry, and Hung-Fu Tseng. 2026. "Real-World Effectiveness of the Influenza Vaccine in Young Children." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 18 (2): 210–28. DOI: 10.1257/app.20240297Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- I12 Health Behavior
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth