How Informational State Capacity Shapes Government Responses to Shocks: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: The Politicization of Healthcare

Brief Overview

We develop a new measure of informational state capacity based on whether countries possess three fundamental statistical records. Our analysis shows that this simple measure strongly predicts underreporting of COVID-19 cases in the Global South.

Authors

• Michael F Harsch, National Defense University

• Alexandra Norris, The World Bank

• Julie Anne Weaver, Harvard University