Connecting-Africa | Find publications

Advanced search

Find:


Title Governing the covid-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa: Containment measures as a public good
Full text http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18763375-13040003; https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3249253
Date 2021
Author(s) Koehler, K.; Schulhofer-Wohl, J.
Abstract What determined how governments in the Middle East and North Africa reacted to the global COVID-19 pandemic? We develop a theoretical argument based on the political costs of different policy options and assess its empirical relevance. Distinguishing between the immediate costs associated with decisive action and the potential costs of uncontrolled spread that are likely to accrue over the long term, we argue that leaders who have fewer incentives to provide public goods to stay in power will lock down later than their more constrained counterparts. We find empirical support for this argument in statistical analyses covering the 1 January ' 30 November 2020 period using the Oxfordcovid-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) and our own original data on the timing of mosque closures and strict lockdowns across the region. We also illustrate our argument with a description of the response to the pandemic in Egypt. - Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour
Subject(s) COVID-19; Coronavirus; Public health; Non-pharmaceutical interventions; Containment; Lockdowns; Leader survival; Political regime type; Winning coalition size; MENA
Language en
Type of publication Article / Letter to editor; info:eu-repo/semantics/article; Text
Format application/pdf
Source Middle East Law and Governance
Rights https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Identifier doi:10.1163/18763375-13040003; lucris-id:433472951
Repository Leiden - University of Leiden
Added to C-A: 2022-11-16;10:37:26