Reacting, fast and slow: how world leaders shaped government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Forster, T. and Heinzel, M. (2021) Reacting, fast and slow: how world leaders shaped government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of European Public Policy, 28(8), pp. 1299-1320. (doi: 10.1080/13501763.2021.1942157)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created extraordinary challenges for governments to safeguard the well-being of their people. To what extent has leaders’ reliance on scientific advice shaped government responses to the COVID-19 outbreak? We argue that leaders who tend to orient themselves on expert advice realized the extent of the crisis earlier. Consequently, these governments would adopt containment measures relatively quickly, despite the high uncertainty they faced. Over time, differences in government responses based on the use of science would dissipate due to herding effects. We test our argument on data combining 163 government responses to the pandemic with national- and individual-level characteristics. Consistent with our argument, we find that countries governed by politicians with a stronger technocratic mentality, approximated by holding a PhD, adopted restrictive containment measures faster in the early, but not in the later, stages of the crisis. This importance of expert-based leadership plausibly extends to other large-scale societal crises.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: TF gratefully acknowledges funding by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). MH gratefully acknowledges funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with grant number FOR#1745 TP LI 1947/4–1.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Heinzel, Dr Mirko
• Authors: Forster, T., and Heinzel, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Journal of European Public Policy
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 1350-1763
• ISSN (Online): 1466-4429
• Published Online: 25 June 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Journal of European Public Policy 28(8): 1299-1320
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License