Jochen Güntner, Gerrit Stahn, Amelie Wuppermann, Felix Zwies
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigates whether the regional elections held in the German state of Bavaria on March 15 of 2020 - shortly after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic - contributed to the spread of COVID-19 cases and COVID-related deaths. Constructing synthetic controls for each of Bavaria's 96 districts based on non-Bavarian German districts, we find that over a third of the increase in positive test results cannot be explained by district-level demographic, economic, health or child care characteristics, nor by the distance to Ischgl - a proxy for skiing tourism associated with the first COVID-19 wave in Germany. Within Bavaria, districts with higher voter participation witnessed a steeper increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths after the election, while controlling for alternative drivers, such as the distance to Ischgl and the number of strong-beer festivals. Our results are highly robust and suggest that an unfortunate timing of elections contributed to the spreading of an infectious disease.
期刊介绍：
The European Journal of Health Economics is a journal of Health Economics and associated disciplines. The growing demand for health economics and the introduction of new guidelines in various European countries were the motivation to generate a highly scientific and at the same time practice oriented journal considering the requirements of various health care systems in Europe. The international scientific board of opinion leaders guarantees high-quality, peer-reviewed publications as well as articles for pragmatic approaches in the field of health economics. We intend to cover all aspects of health economics:
• Basics of health economic approaches and methods
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Health Care Systems
• Pricing and Reimbursement Systems
• Quality-of-Life-Studies The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.
Officially cited as: Eur J Health Econ
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