Elections and Policies: Evidence from the Covid Pandemic

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines the evolution of public policies before the scheduled political elections based on the government responses to the Covid pandemic. The results of an event study in a sample of countries that experienced political elections during the first year of the pandemic suggest that "lockdown style" policies were more stringent the further away countries were from election dates. The gradual relaxation of "lockdown style" restrictions ahead of the elections was driven by policies in low income, less democratic countries, and countries with relatively low social trust. Covid-related "economic support" policies were not significantly affected by the scheduled political elections. Placebo tests based on a random sample of countries that did not experience political elections in the first year of the pandemic confirm the validity of the results.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10544

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models ; Comparative Studies of Countries
• Subject: political cycles ; event study ; Covid pandemic

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Grechyna, Daryna
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/279294
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET