Distributing a Billion Vaccines: COVAX Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

Coauthors: Hannah Kettler, Scott Duke Kominers, Erik Osland, Canice Prendergast, and Andrew A Torkelson
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, (2022): 38, no. 4, 941-974. [PDF]
By January 2022, the COVAX international vaccine collaboration had allocated over a billion vaccines to over 140 countries. We describe and review the allocation process chosen, which reflected both an objective of equitably distributing vaccines across the world and the need to fund that mission. We show how vaccine supply limitations and constraints on some countries’ absorptive capacity have affected overall allocative outcomes. We also discuss market design approaches that were considered but not implemented, including the use of an exchange mechanism to better match countries’ vaccine allocations to their preferences, as well as a vaccine brokerage under which countries could sell excess vaccines to countries with ongoing need. Our analysis addresses some criticisms of COVAX, and offers suggestions for agencies organizing global vaccine cooperation for future pandemics.

Bigger Is Better When It Comes to Vaccine Production

Coauthors: Christopher Snyder
Wall Street Journal, March 2021.
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We Can Sustainably End the Pandemic with 7.2 Billion Vaccine Courses a Year: Chicago Booth’s Eric Budish

The Economic Times, Srijana Mitra Das, ET Bureau, Jun 19, 2021 [PDF]

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How Can More Covid-19 Vaccines be Made Available?

The Economist, May 15, 2021 [PDF]

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Market Design to Accelerate Covid-19 Vaccine Supply

Juan Camilo Castillo, Amrita Ahuja, Susan Athey, Arthur Baker, Tasneem Chipty, Rachel Glennerster, Scott Duke Kominers, Michael Kremer, Greg Larson, Jean Lee, Canice Prendergast, Christopher M Snyder, Alex Tabarrok, Brandon Joel Tan, and Witold Więcek
Science, (2021): 68, no.2, 1107-1109. [PDF]