DECENTRALIZATION AND COVID-19 OUTCOMES. Investigating the relationship between levels of decentralization and COVID-19 excess mortality rates.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic created far reaching societal disruptions around the globe, forcing governments to respond to protect the wellbeing of their citizens. Because of a large variation in conditions – between geography, capacity, density etc. – countries resorted to different methods which led to differing results. Researchers began asking – which conditions or policies are best in improving COVID-19 outcomes? To contribute to this understanding, this study assessed the role of institutional design by examining the effects of levels of decentralization on COVID-19 excess mortality rate. Linear regression was utilized to study the effects of decentralization and its three different variations – fiscal, political, and administrative – to determine if decentralization played a role in lowering the mortality rate of different countries. The study further investigated if the results were different from developing and developed countries. In the end, the study did not find that decentralization had significant effect on mortality rates, except for administrative decentralization in developed states. The findings instead suggest polarization and corruption played a larger and more significant role in increasing mortality rates, while economic and state capacity led to lower mortality rates.