Estimating willingness to pay for the Covid-19 vaccine using the conditional valuation method

Conditional valuation method is one of the methods of estimating the willingness to pay and is a cost-benefit analysis. The aim of the present study was to estimate the average willingness of individuals to pay for the Covid-19 vaccine with a one-year and long-term protection period and to assess its contributing factors.

The present study was a descriptive research. The required data were collected from 370 two-dimensional online questionnaires at the end of November 2020 from Iranians. Conditional valuation method and logit model were used to estimate peoples’ willingness to pay.

The results showed that 65.67 percent of people are willing to pay for the vaccine. The household income, age, history of having chronic disease, history of Covid-19, attitude, recommended amount and having an elderly person in the family had a positive and significant effect on long-term vaccination and age, household income, history of having chronic disease, attitude and the amount offered had a positive and significant effect on annual vaccination. Also, the average willingness to pay was 3,750,000 Rials per person for long-term vaccination, and 1,130,000 Rials per year.

In conditional valuation studies, individuals typically offer a lower bid for the policy under study. However, this study indicated that people are willing to pay more for vaccinations. The findings might have some implications for policy and planning.