We expect effective state institutions to matter in a country's ability to respond to crises. Yet notably in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, what has stood out in simple global snapshots is that wealthier countries with stronger institutions have had the highest numbers of cases and...

This study quantifies the economic impacts of SARS on the four affected Asian economies and the two most affected Chinese regions using synthetic control methods with macroeconomic and remote-sensing nightlight data. For the four affected economies (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore), we...

We study how the stringency of policy measures to counter the COVID-19 pandemic affects individuals' trust in formal institutions. Drawing on micro-level panel data from Germany spanning an 18-month period from the onset of the pandemic, we show that, on average, there is a pronounced negative...

Much has been revealed recently regarding the relative unpreparedness of Public Health Authorities and their governments in many countries. We show that a lack of preparedness for the Covid-19 pandemic resulted from four major types of shortcomings. First, even when there were problems noted in...

There is an important interdependence between economic, financial and health policy actions. The recent Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated that, apart from the direct economic consequences from illness and death from the virus, the main economic and financial costs have been due to the varying...

Substantial weaknesses in the preparation by public health authorities and governments increased the health and economic costs of the Covid-19 pandemic relative to what they would have been if pre-existing recommendations had been followed and a wider set of plans had been put into place....

Information provided by experts is widely believed to play a key role in shaping attitudes towards policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper uses a survey experiment to assess whether providing citizens with expert information about the health risk of COVID-19 and the economic costs...

By conducting large-scale surveys in four European countries, we investigate the determinants of right- and left-wing misperceptions as well as fake news exposure and sharing. We also shed light on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced both misperceptions and fake news. Our results indicate that...

In this paper, we discuss 10 parallels between the lack of preparation of financial system regulators prior to the GFC and the lack of preparation by public health authorities and governments prior to Covid-19. These parallels relate to: required stocks (of capital or equipment), data collection...