The political economy of pandemic preparedness and effectiveness

Cullen S. Hendrix ()
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Cullen S. Hendrix: Peterson Institute for International Economics

No WP21-10, Working Paper Series from Peterson Institute for International Economics

Abstract: The success of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic has varied greatly. Explanations for the differences fall into four broad categories: political/economic, cultural/social, demographic/geographic, and policy-oriented. This paper uses Bayesian model averaging to assess the explanatory power of 21 potential covariates. It shows that standard political economy variables that predict greater investment in public health, such as GDP per capita and level of democracy; both general and pandemic-specific measures of government effectiveness; and demographic factors that predict increased vulnerability, such as the share of population that is elderly or obese, do not explain the differences in outcomes. The key factors appear to have been interdictability (the ability to tightly control borders and effectively restrict or monitor entrants at a limited number of entry ports), the early adoption of stronger international travel restrictions, and a female head of government.

Keywords: COVID-19; public health; OECD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I18 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-isf
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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