We expect effective state institutions to matter in a country's ability to respond to crises. Yet notably in the first … relationships in the cross-country data, drawing on measures of the state, COVID's health impact, and pandemic policy response. In … between state effectiveness and pandemic health outcomes does in fact pertain. Our findings also offer insight into how …

Germany and France offer two different models of political and administrative organisation: a federal state on one side … of the Rhine and a unitary state on the other, albeit one that has become more decentralised over the last 40 years. Thus …