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Country performance during the Covid-19 pandemic: Externalities, coordination and the role of institutions

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  • Santiago Lago-Peñas
  • Jorge Martinez-Vazquez
  • Agnese Sacchi

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most powerful examples of negative externalities across the globe. We focus on the role played by institutions at the country level in fighting the spread of Covid-19 by making policy coordination more difficult or, on the contrary, more effective. Specifically, we consider the type of political regimes, political fragmentation and decentralization settings. We use the most recent available information on Covid-19 performance for up to 115 countries around the world. Our main results show that having either democracies or autocracies does not represent a crucial issue for successfully addressing the pandemic. Most significantly, countries with centralized political parties, which fundamentally allow for better coordination at the national level, perform significantly better than those with decentralized ones. However, the assignment of policy responsibilities to sub-national governments is an impediment in fighting the Covid-19 emergency.

Suggested Citation

  • Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Agnese Sacchi, 2020. "Country performance during the Covid-19 pandemic: Externalities, coordination and the role of institutions," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 2001, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:gov:wpaper:2001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Debalke, Negash Mulatu, 2023. "Exploring Disparate Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic and its Containment Measures on Food Security within Ethiopia," MPRA Paper 118288, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2023.
    2. Klaudijo Klaser, 2020. "A Theory of Justice of John Rawls as Basis for European Fiscal Union," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 11(1-2).
    3. Maria Cadaval Sampedro & Ana Herrero Alcalde & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2022. "Extreme events and the resilience of decentralized governance," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 2212, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    4. Millemaci, Emanuele & Monteforte, Fabio & Temple, Jonathan R. W., 2023. "Have autocrats governed for the long term?," SocArXiv w8khb, Center for Open Science.
    5. Ryota Nakatani & Qianqian Zhang & Isaura Garcia Valdes, 2024. "Health Expenditure Decentralization and Health Outcomes: The Importance of Governance," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 54(1), pages 59-87.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; policy coordination; externalities; decentralization; democratic institutions; political fractionalization.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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