This chapter is part of an edited volume studying and comparing federalist government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter first briefly provides an overview of the American public health emergency framework and highlights key leadership challenges that occurred at federal and state...

We estimate whether federal aid for state and local governments played a role in advancing population testing for COVID-19 and the administration of vaccines. To overcome biases that can result from the endogeneity of federal aid allocations, we use an instrumental-variables estimator reliant on...

The COVID pandemic caused the political competition between the prime ministers of the German states to reach its peak. Whoever is the best at announcing, launching, or implementing policies to combat the pandemic can hope to capitalize most politically. In this paper, we attempt to document...

The response of governments to the COVID-19 outbreak was foremost oriented to two objectives: saving lives and limiting economic losses. However, the effectiveness and success factors of interventions were unknown ex-ante. This study aims to shed light on the drivers of countries' performances...

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....

A lockdown policy that mitigates the effects of COVID-19 for both older and younger people would be less extensive than in April but remain in place through the summer. To slow the spread of COVID-19, many countries are shutting down nonessential sectors of the economy. Older individuals have...

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...