Research Seminar on Diversity and Development Denis Ivanov "COVID-19 Vaccines Effectiveness and Public Support for Anti-Pandemic Measures"

HSE International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions are pleased to announce their next joint Research Seminar on Diversity and Development. The event is held jointly with the seminar “Political Economy”.

Denis Ivanov (HSE University) will present his paper "COVID-19 Vaccines Effectiveness and Public Support for Anti-Pandemic Measures". Co-author - Ekaterina Borisova (HSE University)
The seminar will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, 2020. We would like to ask everyone to register for the seminar at https://goo.gl/forms/Sp9brZmfdE5nwX6k1 until 4 pm of October 27. The link to the Zoom conference will be sent to all registered participants before 5 pm. If you have any questions please contact Valeria Kotelnikova (vkotelnikova@hse.ru)

Working language of the seminar is English.
Abstract: Although many COVID-19 vaccines are currently under development, their safety and effectiveness cannot be ensured. At the same time, many jurisdictions reimpose full or partial lockdowns as a response to increasing number of cases, as well as mandate social distancing and mask-wearing in public spaces. We use random assignment of vignettes featuring optimistic and pessimistic scenarios with respect to the vaccine effectiveness on a sample of about 1,600 Russians to gauge public support for anti-pandemic measures under different scenarios. We show that the respondents who are afraid of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 are significantly more likely to support the restrictions, but they also reduce their support for the anti-pandemic measures in case no safe and effective vaccine is found compared to those who received no information treatment. This relationship is particularly strong for the most economically costly measures, namely banning large gatherings and shutting down non-essential businesses rather than for mask-wearing. We interpret this as a manifestation of the fatalism effect found in previous studies of compliance with the anti-pandemic restrictions. Our findings imply that in the absence of a clear-cut solution for the COVID-19-related crisis public support for the anti-pandemic restrictions is likely to wane.

We look forward to seeing you!
Kind regards,
ICSID and NES CSDSI