Julie Cullen, UCSD

(with Maria Knoth Humlum, Agne Suziedelyte, and Peter Rønø Thingholm)

Abstract: We explore the role that physicians play in moderating the uptake of vaccines for their own patients and their patients’ social networks. Using Danish administrative data on the universe of Danish children and their healthcare providers, we first construct a measure of providers’ propensities to vaccinate based on a two-way fixed effect model. We then show that the constructed measure of provider propensity to administer childhood vaccines directly affects uptake of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among adolescent patients. Finally, we demonstrate that vaccine-hesitant providers affect the uptake decisions beyond their own patients through patient networks.

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