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This paper empirically analyzes the impact of leadership communication on the COVID-19 vaccination rate using a quasi-experimental design. Based on a speech by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, we examine how political leaders can influence the willingness to get vaccinated of a country's citizens by transmitting scientific insights into a clear and vivid message as well as by threatening credibly with future restrictions for unvaccinated people. In a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) framework it is shown that a televised address of Macron has increased the vaccination rate in France by roughly 5%. We test the robustness of this result by applying an event study design. Our findings imply that leadership communication is an effective weapon to change the beliefs of unvaccinated citizens and to overcome COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy.
