Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40657478›Full record

ArticleLabour economics2025

Promoting public health with blunt instruments: Evidence from vaccine mandates.

Rahi Abouk, John S Earle, Johanna Catherine Maclean, Sungbin Park

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Labour economics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Rahi AboukWilliam Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ, 07470.
John S EarleSchar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, 3351 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201.
Johanna Catherine MacleanSchar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, & NBER & IZA, 3351 Fairfax Drive, Arlington VA 22201.
Sungbin ParkSchar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, 3351 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201.

Funding

Paid Sick Leave Mandates and Mental Healthcare Service UseR01MH132552 · NIMH · GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY · PI JOHANNA CATHERINE MACLEAN · 2023 to 2026
$2.1M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH132552
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We study the effect of mandates requiring COVID-19 vaccination among healthcare industry workers adopted in 2021 in the United States. There are long-standing worker shortages in the U.S. healthcare industry, pre-dating the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 vaccine mandates on shortages is ex ante ambiguous. If mandates increase perceived safety of the healthcare industry, marginal workers may be drawn to healthcare, relaxing shortages. On the other hand, if marginal workers are vaccine hesitant or averse, then mandates may push workers away from the industry and exacerbate shortages. We combine monthly data from the Current Population Survey 2021 to 2022 with difference-in-differences methods to study the effects of state vaccine mandates on the probability of working in healthcare, and on employment transitions into and out of the industry. Our findings suggest that vaccine mandates may worsen healthcare workforce shortages: following adoption of a state-level mandate, the probability of working in the healthcare industry declines by 6%. Effects are larger among workers in healthcare-specific occupations, who leave the industry at higher rates in response to mandates and are slower to be replaced than workers in non-healthcare occupations. Findings suggest trade-offs faced by health policymakers seeking to achieve multiple health objectives.

Indexed as

COVID-19difference-in-differencesH70healthcareI1I11J20mandates

Identifiers

PMID40657478
PMCPMC12245178

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceTDM
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.