Does Governance Quality Matter for the Selection of Policy Stringency to Fight COVID-19?

Abstract

Independent of different national conditions, an indisputable fact is that the worldwide governments should play a role in fighting the ongoing COVID-19. To make clear the determinants of government response to tackle COVID-19, I investigate the impact of governance quality. To do so, I newly create an overall governance index based on six dimensions of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) from the World Bank to proxy governance quality. I regress the overall governance index with controls on the stringency index from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker database. Using pooled and panel data models with individual and time fixed effects, I find that the relationship between governance quality and policy stringency for 339 days across 163 countries is significantly nonmonotonic. Countries with middle governance quality select a high level of policy stringency in contrast to those with high and low governance quality. I also find that policy stringency significantly increases when daily new cases increase. The findings highlight the role of governance quality in deciding the stringency level of public health policies.

Urban resilience under the COVID-19 pandemic: A quantitative assessment framework based on system dynamics

“…An increasing number of studies have highlighted the significance of governance in urban resilience improvement ( Wang, 2022 ; Yan & Cao, 2022 ). This paper constructed the CLD of governance resilience from the perspective of the emergency management of local governments.…”

“…Researchers have acknowledged that governments play an essential role in the response of large-scale public health events like COVID-19 ( Wang, 2022 ), and their governance quality and policies have been investigated. Shi et al (2022) analyzed the governance resilience of urban communities with different geographical locations and social classes during the pandemic.…”

COVID-19 vaccination and governance in the case of low, middle and high-income countries

“…Then, despite the measures taken to alleviate the crisis, efforts were made to reduce its negative social and economic effects, but the loss of well-being was felt in many cases [ 17 ]. Previous studies have shown that when national governments tend to adopt stricter measures to fight against COVID-19, the outcomes can be more meaningful [ 45 – 47 ]. Risks can be more easily counteracted through institutional transparency, open communication between stakeholders and closeness to citizens.…”