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The Measles and Free Riders

California’s Mandatory Vaccination Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

KATHARINE BROWNE
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Abstract:

This article takes up a game-theoretic perspective on California’s recently passed bill (SB 277) that closes all nonmedical exemptions for school-mandated vaccination. Such a perspective characterizes parental decisions to vaccinate their children as a collective action problem and reveals the presence of an incentive to free ride—to enjoy the benefits of others’ efforts to vaccinate their children without vaccinating one’s own. This article defends California’s legislation as a reasonable means of overcoming the free rider problem and of ensuring that the burdens of vaccination are shared equally.

Keywords

measlesvaccinationSB 277free riderscollective action
Type
Special Section: Bioethics Beyond Borders
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 472 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

Notes

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