Project Description

This project explored the complex and often contentious issue of public resource allocation, focusing on how governments decide who receives scarce public goods. These decisions are not just administrative but deeply political, touching on societal norms and potentially affecting social cohesion. By studying the COVID-19 vaccination program, the project looked to understand what drives citizens' attitudes toward these allocation decisions and how governments can foster support and solidarity in society.

Research Questions

The project addressed two main research questions:

• What factors influence citizens' attitudes towards the public allocation of scarce goods?

• How can governments enhance citizen support for allocation decisions and strengthen social solidarity?

Research Approach

The COVID-19 vaccination program served as a case study for this research. The roll-out of the program provided a unique opportunity to study the determinants of citizens’ attitudes towards the public allocation of scarce goods. On the one hand, becoming vaccinated is a matter of life and death for citizens with health issues. On the other hand, vaccination was linked to important privileges related to personal freedoms and mobility as discussions in many countries showed. Thus, the COVID-19 vaccination program did not only provide important cross-sectional and temporal variation, but was a highly salient issue for all citizens worldwide.

Relation to the Liberal Script

The results of our project have implications for SCRIPTS and current public debates. It directly engages with challenges to the liberal script, particularly how public dissatisfaction with resource allocation can be exploited by right-wing populists and extremists. These groups often exploit grievances around perceived inequalities or unfair distribution to undermine trust in democratic institutions and promote their anti-liberal agendas. By examining citizens' attitudes towards the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines, the project offered insights into maintaining social cohesion and trust in democratic institutions. The findings could provide a basis for practical recommendations to policy makers relevant not only for vaccination programmes, but also for longer term strategies to raise support for the public allocation of goods more generally.

Core Findings

The findings of this research are continued and expanded upon in the project "COVID-19 as a Challenge to the Liberal Script," with detailed results available on that project’s website.

Publications

Klüver, Heike / Hartmann, Felix / Humphreys, Macartan / Geißler, Ferdinand / Giesecke, Johannes 2021: Incentives can spur Covid-19 vaccination uptake, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(36): 1-3.

Egger, Dennis / Miguel, Edward / Warren, Shana S. / Shenoy, Ashish / Collins, Elliott / Karlan, Dean / Parkerson, Doug / Mobarak, A. Mushfiq / Fink, Günther / Udry, Christopher / Walker, Michael / Haushofer, Johannes / Larreboure, Magdalena / Athey, Susan / Lopez-Pena, Paula / Benhachmi, Salim / Humphreys, Macartan / Lowe, Layna / Meriggi, Niccoló F. / Wabwire, Andrew / Davis, C. Austin / Pape, Utz Johann / Graff, Tilman / Voors, Maarten / Nekesa, Carolyn / Vernot, Corey 2021: Falling living standards during the COVID-19 crisis. Quantitative evidence from nine developing countries, Science Advances 7(6): 1-12.

Geissler, Ferdinand / Hartmann, Felix / Humphreys, Macartan / Klüver, Heike / Giesecke, Johannes 2022: Public support for global vaccine sharing in the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Germany, PLOS ONE 17(12).

Hartmann, Felix / Humphreys, Macartan / Klüver, Heike / Geissler, Ferdinand / Giesecke, Johannes 2024: Trading Liberties: Estimating COVID-19 Policy Preferences from Conjoint Data, Political Analysis, 32(2): 285-293.