Long-Term Economic Consequences of Vaccines in Matlab, Bangladesh

Abdur Razzaque, ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research
Damian Walker, Johns Hopkins University
Peter Kim Streatfield, ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research
Mohammad Yunus, ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research
Julia Driessen, Johns Hopkins University
Enamul Haque, ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research

Earlier analyses of the value of vaccine typically locked at avoided costs that resulted from immunization. The study will look into long-term economic benefits of childhood vaccination on education and accumulation of household assets. The study used data from Matlab area where the ICDDR,B has been maintaining a Demographic Surveillance System since 1966 over 200,000 people. Measles vaccination was introduced into half of the intervention area in 1982 and expanded to the other half area in 1985. Children in the area were also receiving BCG, OPV, DPT and measles vaccination from 1986. The non-experimental implementation of these vaccines requires the use of econometric tools such as instrumental variables and propensity-score matching to deal with selection bias. We found that those individuals who received three doses each of OPV and DPT, as well as the BCG and measles vaccines had significant impact on education in 1996 and 2005, as well as asset accumulation in 1996.