What motivates non-democratic leadership: Evidence from COVID-19 reopenings in China

Raymond Fisman, Hui Lin, Cong Sun, Yongxiang Wang and Daxuan Zhao

Journal of Public Economics, 2021, vol. 196, issue C

Abstract: We examine Chinese cities’ COVID-19 reopening plans as a window into governments’ economic and social priorities. We measure reopenings based on official government news announcements, and show that these are predicted by citizen discontent, as captured by Baidu searches for terms such as “unemployment” and “protest” in the prior week. The effects are particularly strong early in the epidemic, indicating a priority on initiating economic recovery as early as possible. These results indicate that even a non-democratic government may respond to citizen concerns, possibly to minimize dissent.

Keywords: Bureaucratic incentives; Unrest; Non-democracy; China; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D73 P26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:196:y:2021:i:c:s0047272721000256

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104389

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