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Democracy and COVID-19 Outcomes

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  • Zimmermann, Klaus F.
  • Karabulut, Gokhan
  • Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin
  • Doker, Asli Cansin

Abstract

More democratic countries are often expected to fail at providing a fast, strong, and effective response when facing a crisis such as COVID-19. This could result in higher infections and more negative health effects, but hard evidence to prove this claim is missing for the new disease. Studying the association with five different democracy measures, this study shows that while the infection rates of the disease do indeed appear to be higher for more democratic countries so far, their observed case fatality rates are lower. There is also a negative association between case fatality rates and government attempts to censor media. However, such censorship relates positively to the infection rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Karabulut, Gokhan & Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin & Doker, Asli Cansin, 2021. "Democracy and COVID-19 Outcomes," CEPR Discussion Papers 15722, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15722
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    Cited by:

    1. Ashraf, Badar Nadeem & Goodell, John W., 2022. "COVID-19 social distancing measures and economic growth: Distinguishing short- and long-term effects," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    2. Yusuke Narita & Ayumi Sudo, 2021. "Curse of Democracy: Evidence from the 21st Century," Papers 2104.07617, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    3. Toan Luu Duc Huynh & Duy Duong, 2022. "Government responses, democracy, and COVID-19 containment: a cross-country study," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 98-106.
    4. Ainaa, Carmen & Brunetti, Irene & Mussida, Chiara & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Who lost the most? Distributive effects of COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 829, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Michael Bayerlein & Vanessa A. Boese & Scott Gates & Katrin Kamin & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2021. "Populism and COVID-19: How Populist Governments (Mis)Handle the Pandemic," Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, now publishers, vol. 2(3), pages 389-428, December.
    6. Costas Siriopoulos & Sophia A. Kassapi, 2023. "Female Labor Participation and Mother’s Daycare in Greece Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic: A Regional Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Joshua Aizenman & Alex Cukierman & Yothin Jinjarak & Weining Xin, 2023. "International Evidence on Vaccines and the Mortality to Infections Ratio in the Pre-Omicron Era," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 385-405, November.
    8. Ngo, Vu M. & Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Nguyen, Phuc V. & Huynh, Toan L.D. & Nguyen, Huan H., 2021. "How education and GDP drive the COVID-19 vaccination campaign," MERIT Working Papers 2021-046, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Karabulut, Gokhan & Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin & Doker, Asli Cansin, 2021. "Democracy and COVID-19 outcomes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    10. Gregori Galofre-Vila & Maria Gomez-Leon & David Stuckler, 2021. "A Lesson from History? The 1918 Inuenza pandemic and the rise of Italian Fascism: A cross-city quantitative and historical text qualitative analysis," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 2102, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    11. NARITA Yusuke & SUDO Ayumi, 2021. "Curse of Democracy: Evidence from 2020," Discussion papers 21034, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Jon Reiersen & Manuel Romero-Hernández & Romén Adán-González, 2022. "Government Reactions, Citizens’ Responses, and COVID-19 around the World," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-12, May.
    13. Anton M. Pillay & Jeremiah Madzimure, 2021. "Democracy in Decline: Three Global Trends and How They Highlight the Case of “American Exceptionalism” and the Need to Re-Think IR Theory," Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences, Eurasian Publications, vol. 9(3), pages 138-149.
    14. Albæk, Karsten, 2021. "Covid-19 epidemien i Vesteuropa: betydningen af befolkningstæthed, andel ældre og tillid for dødelighed og økonomisk aktivitet," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2021(1), pages 1-17.
    15. Adamecz-Völgyi, Anna & Szabó-Morvai, Ágnes, 2021. "Confidence in public institutions is critical in containing the COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 861, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Margarete Redlin, 2022. "Differences in NPI strategies against COVID-19," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Sugata Marjit & Gouranga Gopal Das, 2021. "Contact-Intensity, Collapsing Entertainment Sector and Wage Inequality: A Finite Change Model of Covid-19 Impact," CESifo Working Paper Series 9311, CESifo.
    18. Bessho, S., 2023. "Elections and COVID-19 benefit payments," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    19. Adam, Antonis & Tsarsitalidou, Sofia, 2022. "Data misreporting during the COVID19 crisis: The role of political institutions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    20. Étienne Dagorn & Martina Dattilo & Matthieu Pourieux, 2022. "Preferences matter! Political Responses to the COVID-19 and Population’s Preferences," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 2022-01, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.
    21. Lin, Thung-Hong & Chang, Min-Chiao & Chang, Chun-Chih & Chou, Ya-Hsuan, 2022. "Government-sponsored disinformation and the severity of respiratory infection epidemics including COVID-19: A global analysis, 2001–2020," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    22. Albæk, Karsten, 2021. "Covid-19 epidemien i Vesteuropa: betydningen af befolkningstæthed, andel ældre og tillid for dødelighed og økonomisk aktivitet Covid-19," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2021(1), pages 1-17.
    23. Mauro Caselli & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2022. "From the lockdown to the new normal: individual mobility and local labor market characteristics following the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1517-1550, October.
    24. Carmen Aina & Irene Brunetti & Chiara Mussida & Sergio Scicchitano, 2023. "Distributional effects of COVID-19," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 221-256, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy; Covid-19; Coronavirus; Pandemic; Lockdown; Media censoring;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • C30 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other

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