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How did federal aid to states and localities affect testing and vaccine delivery?

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  • Clemens, Jeffrey
  • Hoxie, Philip
  • Kearns, John
  • Veuger, Stan

Abstract

We estimate whether large allocations of federal aid for state and local governments played a role in advancing population testing for COVID-19 and the administration of vaccines. To overcome biases that can result from the endogeneity of federal aid allocations, we use an instrumental-variables estimator reliant on the substantial variation in federal aid predicted by variation in states’ congressional representation. We find that federal fiscal assistance dollars had a modest if any impact on the pace of vaccine rollouts, may have improved the equitability of vaccine administration, and had a substantial impact on the volume of tests administered. We observe that the difference in our findings for testing relative to vaccination suggests that surplus funds were more effective at increasing demand for services that exhibit relatively elastic demand, which is socially desirable when those services are associated with substantial public health externalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Clemens, Jeffrey & Hoxie, Philip & Kearns, John & Veuger, Stan, 2023. "How did federal aid to states and localities affect testing and vaccine delivery?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:225:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723001548
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104972
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    1. Jeffrey Clemens & Stan Veuger, 2020. "Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for State Government Tax Revenues," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 73(3), pages 619-644, September.
    2. Thomas Hale & Noam Angrist & Rafael Goldszmidt & Beatriz Kira & Anna Petherick & Toby Phillips & Samuel Webster & Emily Cameron-Blake & Laura Hallas & Saptarshi Majumdar & Helen Tatlow, 2021. "A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker)," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 529-538, April.
    3. Jeffrey Clemens & Philip G. Hoxie & Stan Veuger, 2022. "Was Pandemic Fiscal Relief Effective Fiscal Stimulus? Evidence from Aid to State and Local Governments," NBER Working Papers 30168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Marcella Alsan & Marianne Wanamaker, 2018. "Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 407-455.
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    7. Valerie A. Ramey, 2019. "Ten Years after the Financial Crisis: What Have We Learned from the Renaissance in Fiscal Research?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 89-114, Spring.
    8. Clemens, Jeffrey & Veuger, Stan, 2021. "Politics and the distribution of federal funds: Evidence from federal legislation in response to COVID-19," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    9. Marcella Alsan & Sarah Eichmeyer, 2024. "Experimental Evidence on the Effectiveness of Nonexperts for Improving Vaccine Demand," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 394-414, February.
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    11. Jacob Wallace & Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Jason Schwartz, 2022. "Excess death rates for Republicans and Democrats during the COVID-19 pandemic," Papers 2209.10751, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    12. Jeffrey Clemens & Benedic Ippolito & Stan Veuger, 2021. "Medicaid and fiscal federalism during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 94-109, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jeffrey Clemens & Stan Veuger, 2024. "Intergovernmental Grants and Policy Competition: Concepts, Institutions, and Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Policy Responses to Tax Competition, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jeffrey Clemens & Philip G. Hoxie & Stan Veuger, 2022. "Was Pandemic Fiscal Relief Effective Fiscal Stimulus? Evidence from Aid to State and Local Governments," NBER Working Papers 30168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Fiscal federalism; Intergovernmental grants; Public goods; State and local government;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality

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