Pandemic Leadership: Did “Scientists” Lock Down More Quickly?

Joachim Wehner and Mark Hallerberg
Additional contact information
Joachim Wehner: London School of Economics and Political Science

No 9pazw, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Commentators have suggested a link between leaders having a “science” background and the speed of lockdown after the outbreak of COVID-19. We examine possible underlying mechanisms and test this relationship empirically with a global dataset of the educational background of 188 leaders in office at the start of the pandemic. Using several statistical tests, we find no support for a systematic relationship between a leader having studied a natural science or medicine and the timing of the first lockdown. There are no systematic effects for female leaders and populists either. We caution against generalizations based on a small number of high-profile anecdotes about how certain leadership traits translate into different policy responses during the pandemic.

Date: 2021-04-21
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/607eee46c29ca8033ceb6202/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:9pazw

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/9pazw

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().