Political regimes and deaths in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Authors:
Gabriel Cepaluni São Paulo State University, Brazil

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Michael T. Dorsch Central European University, Austriaand Democracy Institute, Hungary

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Réka Branyiczki Central European University, Austria

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Article Category:
Research Article
Copyright:
© AESP 2022
Online Publication Date:
30 Aug 2021
Pages:
27–53
Publisher:
Bristol University Press
Volume/Issue:
Volume 37: Issue 1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1332/251569121X16268740317724
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This article provides a quantitative examination of the link between political institutions and deaths during the first 100 days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate that countries with more democratic political institutions experienced deaths on a larger per capita scale than less democratic countries. The result is robust to the inclusion of many relevant controls, a battery of estimation techniques and estimation with instrumental variables for the institutional measures. Additionally, we examine the extent to which COVID-19 deaths were impacted heterogeneously by policy responses across types of political institutions. Policy responses in democracies were less effective in reducing deaths in the early stages of the crisis. The results imply that democratic political institutions may have a disadvantage in responding quickly to pandemics.

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Gabriel Cepaluni São Paulo State University, Brazil

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Michael T. Dorsch Central European University, Austriaand Democracy Institute, Hungary

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Réka Branyiczki Central European University, Austria

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gabi.cepal@gmail.com
dorschm@ceu.edu
branyiczki_reka@phd.ceu.edu

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