Julie VanDusky-Allen, an assistant professor in the School of Public Service, published two co-authored articles that examine government responses to COVID throughout the world.
The first article, published in Canadian Public Policy, finds that while subnational governments in both the U.S. and Canada played a large role in the early response to the pandemic, governors typically took the lead in the U.S. while in Canada, a variety of subnational elected officials and public health officials were involved in the response. The second piece, published in the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, finds that the level of democracy and the extent of decentralization in a country have a positive effect on the overall stringency of COVID policy responses adopted.
These projects are a part of a larger data collection effort, the COVID-19 Protective Policy Index Project, which focuses on gathering and analyzing government responses to the pandemic across the world over time.