Size isn’t everything: COVID-19 and the role of government
Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › Research › peer-review
Standard
Size isn’t everything : COVID-19 and the role of government. / Kurrild-Klitgaard, Peter.
In: Public Choice, 13.01.2024.Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Size isn’t everything
T2 - COVID-19 and the role of government
AU - Kurrild-Klitgaard, Peter
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2024/1/13
Y1 - 2024/1/13
N2 - The emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 quickly generated claims that the crisis had demonstrated the superiority of extensive welfare states and a failure of market economies. We conduct cross-sectional statistical analyses to test this claim with regard to first response and reported COVID-19 related deaths per 31 December 2020 (N = 164–200), using government spending as a central variable. The analyses confirm some of what is known from other studies: COVID-19 deaths associate positively and robustly with ageing and more obese populations. However, we find no statistically significant associations between various measures of government size and the number of COVID-19 deaths, alone or when controlled against demographic, political and economic factors. If anything, the general effectiveness of government services and the availability of hospital beds seem more important than the simple size of government or level of health care expenditures.
AB - The emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 quickly generated claims that the crisis had demonstrated the superiority of extensive welfare states and a failure of market economies. We conduct cross-sectional statistical analyses to test this claim with regard to first response and reported COVID-19 related deaths per 31 December 2020 (N = 164–200), using government spending as a central variable. The analyses confirm some of what is known from other studies: COVID-19 deaths associate positively and robustly with ageing and more obese populations. However, we find no statistically significant associations between various measures of government size and the number of COVID-19 deaths, alone or when controlled against demographic, political and economic factors. If anything, the general effectiveness of government services and the availability of hospital beds seem more important than the simple size of government or level of health care expenditures.
KW - Corona virus
KW - COVID-19
KW - Governance
KW - Government size
KW - Pandemic
U2 - 10.1007/s11127-023-01127-z
DO - 10.1007/s11127-023-01127-z
M3 - Editorial
AN - SCOPUS:85182190104
JO - Public Choice
JF - Public Choice
SN - 0048-5829
ER -
ID: 385537736