Do vaccinations reduce inequality in Covid-19 mortality? Evidence from England

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do vaccinations reduce inequality in Covid-19 mortality? Evidence from England

AU - Sá, Filipa

N1 - Funding Information: I would like to thank Brian Bell, Mary O'Mahony and Sotiris Vandoros for their useful comments and Seyhun Sakalli for his help with the implementation of spatial standard errors. I would also like to thank the editor and two anonymous referees for their useful comments and suggestions that have helped improve the paper. I am grateful to the Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance at King's Business School for funding. The results and views expressed in this study are those of the author and do not reflect those of the providers of funding or data used in the analysis. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author

PY - 2022/7/1

Y1 - 2022/7/1

N2 - The Covid-19 pandemic has affected countries and regions to varying degrees. In this paper, I examine the socioeconomic determinants of Covid-19 mortality and study whether vaccinations have affected the relationship between those determinants and Covid-19 mortality rates across local areas in England. I use monthly data for 6791 Middle Layer Super Output Areas for the period from March 2020 to April 2021 and estimate a spatial correlations model with local authority and time fixed effects. To study whether vaccinations have affected the relationship between socioeconomic determinants and Covid-19 mortality, I extend the model to include interactions between socioeconomic variables and the lagged cumulative vaccination rate. I find that Covid-19 mortality is higher in areas that have an older population, a larger share of Asian population, higher population density, lower income, poorer pre-existing health and a larger share of employment in health and social care occupations. Vaccinations have weakened the links between mortality and these socioeconomic characteristics. These findings highlight the importance of making vaccines widely available and encouraging take-up, to reduce inequality in Covid-19 mortality across socioeconomic groups.

AB - The Covid-19 pandemic has affected countries and regions to varying degrees. In this paper, I examine the socioeconomic determinants of Covid-19 mortality and study whether vaccinations have affected the relationship between those determinants and Covid-19 mortality rates across local areas in England. I use monthly data for 6791 Middle Layer Super Output Areas for the period from March 2020 to April 2021 and estimate a spatial correlations model with local authority and time fixed effects. To study whether vaccinations have affected the relationship between socioeconomic determinants and Covid-19 mortality, I extend the model to include interactions between socioeconomic variables and the lagged cumulative vaccination rate. I find that Covid-19 mortality is higher in areas that have an older population, a larger share of Asian population, higher population density, lower income, poorer pre-existing health and a larger share of employment in health and social care occupations. Vaccinations have weakened the links between mortality and these socioeconomic characteristics. These findings highlight the importance of making vaccines widely available and encouraging take-up, to reduce inequality in Covid-19 mortality across socioeconomic groups.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130796755&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115072

DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115072

M3 - Article

SN - 0277-9536

VL - 305

JO - Social Science & Medicine

JF - Social Science & Medicine

M1 - 115072

ER -