Risk Communication, Values Clarification, and Vaccination Decisions

Discounting, Values, and Decisions∗

How do discount rates affect agents’ decisions and valuations? This paper provides a common methodology and a systematic analysis of this question, considering stochastic and managed cash-flows, stochastic discount rates, time inconsistency, and including arbitrary learning and payoff or utility processes. We show that some of these features can lead to counter-intuitive answers (e.g., “a more ...

A Critical Analysis of Values Clarification

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Parents' vaccination comprehension and decisions.

We report on 30 in-depth mental models interviews with parents discussing vaccination for their children, both in general terms and in response to communications drawn from sources supporting and opposing vaccines. We found that even parents favourable to vaccination can be confused by the ongoing debate, leading them to question their choices. Many parents lack basic knowledge of how vaccines ...

Social networks and vaccination decisions

Social Networks and Vaccination Decisions

We combine survey responses, network data, and medical records in order to examine how friends affect the decision to get vaccinated against influenza. The random assignment of undergraduates to residential halls at a large private university generates exogenous variation in exposure to the vaccine, enabling us to credibly identify social effects. We find evidence of positive peer influences on...